What's the difference between avalanche and precipice?

Avalanche


Definition:

  • (n.) A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.
  • (n.) A fall of earth, rocks, etc., similar to that of an avalanche of snow or ice.
  • (n.) A sudden, great, or irresistible descent or influx of anything.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Doing the decent thing has guaranteed them an avalanche of applause when next they play at Goodison - in blue or red."
  • (2) The paper, which traditionally supports the Tory party and was edited by the former Conservative cabinet minister Bill Deedes during seven years of Thatcher's reign, feared an avalanche of "bile" would "spew" from its pages and decided to keep comments closed, according to insiders.
  • (3) 21 April 2009: Unicef says it faces a "human avalanche" of civilians fleeing the conflict .
  • (4) The avalanche also carried off Douglas Alexander , Labour’s shadow foreign secretary who had been in charge of Ed Miliband’s general election campaign.
  • (5) In 2015, an avalanche triggered by a 7.8-magnitude quake killed 19 mountaineers at Everest base camp, prompting the cancellation of all trips .
  • (6) Last October, apparently to avenge charges of drift, the Culture Department launched its library services modernisation review in an avalanche of wonk-speak that suggested little understanding of what brilliant places libraries can be.
  • (7) Despite the avalanche of tempting showbusiness offers, she is reluctant to discuss possible plans for future public appearances or recording contracts.
  • (8) Sixteen Nepalese guides, including 14 members of the Sherpa community, died last April in an avalanche, in what was the deadliest accident to hit the world’s highest peak.
  • (9) The former Fifa vice-president said at the beginning of June that he would disclose secrets about the football governing body, adding that “not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming.
  • (10) Family doctors have warned that the service patients get from their local GP surgery is getting worse because they cannot cope with “an avalanche of workload”.
  • (11) It is shown that the counter produces spectra at 5 nm which can be compared with theoretical predictions grounded on fundamental avalanche theory for a cylindrical counter.
  • (12) We should … adopt some precautionary measure – learning from [how] mountains [are managed] in developed countries where they adopt measures to avoid avalanches by putting some kind of wood or some concrete so that it helps make it safe.” All those attempting the classic South Col route – followed by Sir Edmund Hllary’s team, who first conquered Everest in 1953 – have to pass through the icefall to reach the upper slopes of the mountain.
  • (13) On the road: Paul Rudd (right) with Emile Hirsch in Prince Avalanche.
  • (14) Namaste.” The first photographs to emerge of the avalanche show the scale of the disaster.
  • (15) The results also show that punch-through and avalanche ionization are not likely to be important in the breakdown mechanism.
  • (16) A prototype positron camera has been constructed consisting of two high density avalanche chamber (HIDAC) detectors operated in coincidence with a resolving time (2 tau) of 40 nsec.
  • (17) There have been some companies making changes, but not an avalanche.
  • (18) Climbs in 2014 were cancelled after 16 sherpas died in an icefall avalanche.
  • (19) That was Donald Trump’s advice to the American people on Friday as he sought to fight back against a fresh avalanche of allegations about his ties to Russia .
  • (20) Jurors were discharged following what the defence said was an "avalanche" of prejudicial media reports after the Milly verdicts, and the charge was ordered to lie on file.

Precipice


Definition:

  • (n.) A sudden or headlong fall.
  • (n.) A headlong steep; a very steep, perpendicular, or overhanging place; an abrupt declivity; a cliff.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) On Sunday Assange said: "Will it [the US] return to and reaffirm the revolutionary values it was founded on, or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world?"
  • (2) In a day of unremitting gloom, and yet more market turbulence, the Greek government also stood on the precipice of collapse, risking an uncontrolled default, as the government of George Papandreou faced a late-night confidence vote in parliament.
  • (3) They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us."
  • (4) "We may not be looking over the precipice as we were last autumn, but what we are likely to see is a long, slow reduction in the standard of living in this country.
  • (5) If parties want to try – and I believe they do want to move to a de-escalation – I think there are sets of choices that are available,” he said, expressing hope that “we can seize this moment and pull back from the precipice”.
  • (6) In a canyon between grey shattered precipices of bomb-ravaged buildings, an uncountable number of people wait for food.
  • (7) Filled with classic British gangster-movie iconography – hard London faces hung upside-down from meathooks, the stock-car pile-up – The Long Good Friday is also a grownup, despairing look at Britain on the edge of an economic and political precipice.
  • (8) Peg Johnston, the owner, finds herself facing this precipice every year.
  • (9) However, while a government shutdown is off the table, the spectre of the kind of political brinkmanship that took the US to the precipice of an economic crisis in October has not been entirely averted.
  • (10) As its population ages, China is racing toward a “demographic precipice,” says Wang Feng, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Irvine.
  • (11) "But it's at a precipice where it needs to jump to the next level of evolution."
  • (12) There is a palpable feeling in the country that the ruling junta has run out of ground, teetering on the precipice and threatening to take the country with it.
  • (13) But by voting, First Nations can return their communities from the precipice.
  • (14) For Abbott, on the precipice of fulfilling his destiny in politics, it would have seemed like collegiality, not outright soul-selling, to become a man for Peta and for Brian down in party headquarters, a man for the colleagues, a man for the Liberal party base, a man for Rupert and for Alan Jones and for Ray Hadley (when Scott Morrison wasn’t available) – a man who would validate the various irrationalisms of the wireless ranters and the white male columnists in Rupert’s employ – young and older fogeys who cherish past certainties, and who feel just as ambivalent about the future as Abbott himself feels.
  • (15) IFS inequality chart IFS warns of biggest squeeze on pay for 70 years over Brexit Read more “These troubling forecasts show millions of families across the country are teetering on a precipice, with 400,000 pensioners and over one million more children likely to fall into poverty and suffer the very real and awful consequences that brings if things do not change.
  • (16) With the NFL’s first openly gay player about to join the workplace environment, the League stands on the precipice of a new era, where a culture of respect won’t just be promoted, but will be strictly enforced.
  • (17) More generally, relations with the US and Europe spiralled, with the values gap ever bigger and the rhetoric on both sides ever more spiky, while still refraining from going entirely over the precipice.
  • (18) The prospect of protracted political instability has stoked fears that Greece is not just teetering on a political precipice but also laying the ground, however unwittingly, for its own euro exit.
  • (19) This time, people saw they were at the edge of a precipice and they reacted.” He said of his absolute majority in parliament elections this week , that cemented the collapse of the decades-old traditional French parties, as well as being seen abroad as holding back populism: “My election, and my majority in parliament are not the end of something: they are a challenging beginning.
  • (20) Since neither the men nor the animals could be sure of their footing on account of the snow, any who stepped wide of the path or stumbled, overbalanced and fell down the precipices.” At length they reached a spot where the path suddenly seemed impassable, as Livy describes it: “A narrow cliff falling away so sheer that even a light-armed soldier could hardly have got down it by feeling his way and clinging to such bushes and stumps as presented themselves.” “The track was too narrow for the elephants or even the pack animals to pass,” writes Polybius.