1. To send someone or something suddenly and rapidly into a particular state or condition: Sam had to be careful while standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, otherwise one false step might precipitate him down into the bottom of the canyon!
2. To cause a liquid or solid forms of water, condensed in the atmosphere, to fall to the ground: Excess moisture in the sky is precipitated as rain, snow, or hail, depending on the season of the year.
3. To throw someone or something from a great height, or to fall from a great height: Jack dropped a stone from the bridge high above the river and it precipitated down into the swirling roar below.
4. To cause a substance in a solution to settle down into solid particles: A chemical sediment occurs when certain substances are precipitated by an inorganic or organic process.
5. To occur with undue rapidity: The steep rise in prices for gas precipitated street rioting.
6. Etymology: from Latin praeceps, praecipitis, "headlong, steep"; from prae-, "before, forth" + caput, "head".