Definition of PARLOUS

parlous

Adjective Satellite

  • fraught with danger
    • "a parlous journey on stormy seas"

Adj

  • Attended with peril; dangerous, risky.
  • Appalling, dire, terrible.
  • Dangerously clever or cunning; also, remarkably good or unusual.

Adv

  • Extremely, very.

Adjective

  • Full of peril or danger; precarious.

Examples

  • His position was PARLOUS after his opponent played a seven-letter word on a triple score.
  • in a parlous state
  • The situation became parlous when the weather made resupply impossible.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English parles, parlous, perlous, [and other forms], a contraction of perilous (“dangerous; dreadful, terrible; morally corrupt, sinful, wicked; inauspicious, unlucky”) (and thus a doublet of perilous), from Old French perilleus, perillos, perillous, perilluse, perilleuse, perilleux (“very dangerous, perilous”) (modern French périlleux), from Latin perīculōsus (“dangerous, hazardous, perilous”), from perīculum (“danger, hazard, peril, risk”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives).

Scrabble Score: 9

parlous: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
parlous: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
parlous: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 12

parlous: valid Words With Friends Word