Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being precipitant; rash haste; headlong hurry.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being precipitant, or precipitate; headlong hurry; excessive or rash haste in resolving, forming an opinion, or executing a purpose; precipitation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of precipitancy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of happening with headlong haste or without warning

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Precipitate, I know, she has always been reckoned; but her precipitance is of kin to her noblest virtues; it springs but from the unsuspicious frankness of an unguarded, because innocent nature.

    Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth 1796

  • Nor do I mean to withdraw it, though the present state of your affairs, and what for some time past I have painfully observed of your precipitance, oblige me to add partial counsel to standing precept, and exhortation to advice.

    Camilla 2008

  • Tears started into her eyes at the doubt; she did not hear her uncle's answer; she rose to hurry out of the room; but before she could escape, the big drops rolled fast down her cheeks; and, when arrived at her chamber, 'I have lost him!' she cried, 'by my own unreflecting precipitance; I have lost him, perhaps, for ever!'

    Camilla 2008

  • Amazed beyond all measure, she stared at him a moment in silence, and then, confirmed by his looks that he was serious, would have left the cabin with precipitance: but, preventing her from passing; 'Charming Miss

    Camilla 2008

  • Camilla wept with joy at the idea: 'Ah!; she cried,' if such should be my happy fate; if, after hearing all my imprudence, my precipitance, and want of judgment, he should voluntarily, when wholly set free, return to me ...

    Camilla 2008

  • Enchanted to again meet her eyes, the youth bowed with intense respect, and advanced a few paces, as if with intention to speak to her, though immediately and with still more precipitance he retreated, from being ready with nothing to say.

    Camilla 2008

  • In the past month, government has acted with precipitance of judgment, akin to patching holes as the levy fails.

    A New Deal For America 2008

  • He found no longer any difficulty in promising not to act with precipitance; his confidence was gone; his elevation of sentiment was depressed; a general mist clouded his prospects, and a suspensive discomfort inquieted his mind.

    Camilla 2008

  • Accuse me not of precipitance, my dear Doctor, nor believe me capable of forgetting the wisdom of your suggestions, nor of lightly weighing those evils with which your zeal has encompassed me, though I write at this instant to confess a total contrariety of sentiment, to call back every promise of delay, and to make an unqualified avowal, that the period of caution is past!

    Camilla 2008

  • Clermont will surely suppose this precipitance all mine; and already, possibly, concludes it is upon my suggestion he has thus prematurely been called from his travels, and impeded in his praise-worthy ambition of studying the laws, manners, and customs of the different nations of

    Camilla 2008

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