touch-and-go

adjective

fraught with danger

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dangerous waters

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a parlous journey on stormy seas

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a perilous voyage across the Atlantic in a small boat

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the precarious life of an undersea diver

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dangerous surgery followed by a touch-and-go recovery

• Syn: ↑parlous, ↑perilous, ↑precarious

• Similar to: ↑dangerous, ↑unsafe

• Derivationally related forms: ↑precariousness (for: ↑precarious), ↑peril (for: ↑perilous), ↑perilousness (for: ↑perilous)

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adj

close, critical, dangerous, uncertain, hazardous, near, nerve-racking, offhand, perilous, dire, precarious, risky, sticky, tricky

FORMAL parlous

COLLOQ. dodgy, hairy

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▶ adjective UNCERTAIN, precarious, risky, hazardous, dangerous, critical, suspenseful, cliffhanging, hanging by a thread.

Opposites

certain.

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I. \\| ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷| ̷ ̷\ adjective

Etymology: touch and go

1. : marked by restlessness or casualness of movement or execution

touch-and-go dialogue

2. : precarious, hairbreadth

mule trains to haul your equipment the two touch-and-go miles — Horace Sutton

II. noun

: an airplane landing followed immediately by application of power and a takeoff and usually executed as one of a series for practice at landings

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/tuch"euhn goh"/, adj.

1. risky; precarious: a touch-and-go descent down the mountain.

2. hasty, sketchy, or desultory.

[1805-15]

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touch-and-go UK US adjective

not certain and with a risk of death or serious failure

It had been touch-and-go for him in the hospital, but he had eventually recovered.

Thesaurus: involving a risk or risks_synonym

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touch and go,

1. an uncertain, risky, or precarious situation: »

It was touch and go whether the wounded man would live or die.

2. the act of touching for an instant and at once quitting; something done quickly or instantaneously.

touch-and-go «TUHCH uhn GOH», adjective.

uncertain; risky; precarious.

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ˌtouch-and-ˈgo [touch-and-go] adjective not usually before noun (informal)

used to say that the result of a situation is uncertain and that there is a possibility that sth bad or unpleasant will happen

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She's fine now, but it was touch-and-go for a while

(= there was a possibility that she might die)

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It was touch-and-go whether they'd allow him into the country or not.