Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DAN'GER, n. [Fr. Arm. Scot. danger; Norm. daungerous, dubious. This word in Scottish, according to Jamieson, signifies peril, power, or dominion, doubt, hesitation. In Chaucer, it signifies peril, and coyness, sparingness or custody. In old English laws, it denotes a payment in money by forest tenants, to their lord, for permission to plow and sow in the time of pannage or mast-feeding. The primary sense is not obvious. Spenser has the following couplet. Valiant he should be as fire, / Showing danger more than ire.]

Peril; risk; hazard; exposure to injury, loss, pain, or other evil. It is easy to boast of despising death, when there is no danger. Our craft is in danger to be set at naught. – Acts xix.