parlous

Meaning

Adj

1. Attended with peril; dangerous, risky.
2. Appalling, dire, terrible.
3. (obsolete) Dangerously clever or cunning; also, remarkably good or unusual.

Adv

Extremely, very.

Synonyms

perilous

precarious

touch-and-go

hazardous

dangerous

clever

shrewd

canny

awkward

sharp

cunning

cute

designing

dire

dodgy

eager

embarrassing

excessive

excessively

extraordinary

hardheaded

ingenious

intelligent

keen

knowing

much

politic

risky

sharp-witted

sly

smart

spiffy

subtile

subtle

surprising

ticklish

very

vulpine

wily

on thin ice

pawky

slyish

periculous

alert

really difficult

arch

artful

astute

awake

brainy

cagey

cagy

chancy

crafty

Hyphenated as

parl‧ous

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɑːləs/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: parles

Cognate with French: périlleux

In summary

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 dare, risk, try”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives).