precipitate
verb (formal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they precipitate | |
| he / she / it precipitates | |
| past simple precipitated | |
| past participle precipitated | |
| -ing form precipitating |
- precipitate something
to make something, especially something bad, happen suddenly or sooner than it should 使…突然降临；加速（坏事的发生） - precipitate somebody/something into something
to suddenly force somebody/something into a particular state or condition 使突然陷入（某种状态）
Word Originearly 16th cent.: from Latin praecipitat- ‘thrown headlong’, from the verb praecipitare, from praeceps, praecip(it)- ‘headlong’, from prae ‘before’ + caput ‘head’. The original sense of the verb was ‘hurl down, send violently’; hence ‘cause to move rapidly’, which gave rise to the current verb and noun senses (early 17th cent.).