# precipitate
## English
### Alternative forms

* præcipitate (obsolete)

### Etymology 1

From Latin praecipitātus, perfect passive participle of praecipitō (“throw down, hurl down, throw headlong”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more), from praeceps (“head foremost, headlong”) (praecipit- in its oblique stem), from prae (“before”) +‎ -ceps (“headed”).

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA: /pɹɪˈsɪpɪteɪt/, /pɹəˈsɪpɪteɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)

#### Verb

precipitate (third-person singular simple present precipitates, present participle precipitating, simple past and past participle precipitated)
* (transitive) To make something happen suddenly and quickly.
    Synonyms: advance, accelerate, hasten, speed up
    to precipitate a journey, or a conflict
    it precipitated their success
** 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Ambition”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:if they be stout and daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous
** 1737, Richard Glover, Leonidas Book 4
    Back to his sight precipitates her steps.
** 1979 December 29, Rudy Kikel, “Young Men”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 23, page 15:Freshly arrived in Paris in 1871 at the age of 17, Rimbaud proceded to precipitate the collapse of Verlaine's marital menage, and with it his social position.
* (transitive) To throw an object or person from a great height.
    Synonyms: throw, fling, cast; see also Thesaurus:throw
** 1822 May 21, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Hawking”, in Bracebridge Hall, or The Humourists. A Medley. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 182:In gallopping heedlessly along, with her eyes turned upwards, she had unwarily approached too near the bank; it had given way with her, and she and her horse had been precipitated to the pebbled margin of the river.
* (transitive) To send violently into a certain state or condition.
    we were precipitated into a conflict
* (intransitive) (chemistry) To come out of a liquid solution into solid form.
    Adding the acid will cause the salt to precipitate.
* (transitive) (chemistry) To separate a substance out of a liquid solution into solid form.
* (intransitive, meteorology) To have water in the air fall to the ground, for example as rain, snow, sleet, or hail; be deposited as condensed droplets.
    Troponyms: rain, snow, hail
    It will precipitate tomorrow, but we don't know whether as rain or snow.
* (transitive) To cause (water in the air) to condense or fall to the ground.
** 1819 June 23 – 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “(please specify the title)”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC:The light vapour of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold.
* (intransitive) To fall headlong.
* (intransitive) To act too hastily; to be precipitous.

##### Synonyms

* headlong

##### Derived terms

* precipitated
* precipitator
* red precipitate
* white precipitate

##### Related terms

* precipice
* precipitation
* praecipito
* precipitous

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Latin praecipitātus (see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more).

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA: /pɹɪˈsɪpɪtət/, /pɹəˈsɪpɪtət/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (common but often proscribed) (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA: /pɹɪˈsɪpɪteɪt/, /pɹəˈsɪpɪteɪt/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)

#### Adjective

precipitate (comparative more precipitate, superlative most precipitate)
* headlong; falling steeply or vertically.
    Synonyms: headlong, precipitant, precipitous
** 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon, book 2, lines 853–854:When the full stores their ancient bounds disdain, / Precipitate the furious torrent flows.
* Very steep; precipitous.
    Synonym: brant
* With a hasty impulse; hurried; headstrong.
    Synonyms: hotheaded, impetuous, rash; see also Thesaurus:reckless
** 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 145:Though thoughtful far beyond your years, you are very inexperienced; and I would not have a preference that may originate in your little knowledge of others, or a romantic exaggeration of slight kindnesses, lead you into a precipitate union with me, unless you most seriously examine your own heart, and weigh the various consequences.
* Moving with excessive speed or haste; overly hasty.
    The king was too precipitate in declaring war.
    a precipitate case of disease
** 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:'One moment!" said Malone. "I beg, sir, that you will not be precipitate. I value your friendship too much to risk the loss of it if it can, in any way, be avoided."
* Performed very rapidly or abruptly.
    Synonyms: abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden
** 1931, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness:It had cost me a distinct psychological effort to do so, and now that I was shut inside I had a momentary longing for precipitate retreat.

##### Derived terms

* precipitately
* precipitateness

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

From New Latin praecipitatum. Equivalent to Latin praecipitō +‎ -ate (noun-forming suffix).

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA: /pɹɪˈsɪpɪtət/, /pɹəˈsɪpɪtət/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA: /pɹɪˈsɪpɪteɪt/, /pɹəˈsɪpɪteɪt/

#### Noun

precipitate (plural precipitates)
* A product resulting from a process, event, or course of action.
** 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 381:As for the musculature it is a precipitate of Spirit and the signature of the cosmos is in it.
* (chemistry) A solid that exits the liquid phase of a solution.

##### Derived terms

* yellow precipitate

##### Translations
### Further reading

* “precipitate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “precipitate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “precipitate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* Peripatetic, peripatetic

## Italian
### Etymology 1
#### Adjective

precipitate f pl
* feminine plural of precipitato

#### Participle

precipitate f pl
* feminine plural of precipitato

### Etymology 2
#### Verb

precipitate
* inflection of precipitare:
** second-person plural present indicative
** second-person plural imperative

## Spanish
### Verb

precipitate
* second-person singular voseo imperative of precipitar combined with te