live dangerously

Idioms and Phrases

Take numerous risks, be daring, as in Bill never knows if he'll have enough money to pay the next month's rent—he likes to live dangerously . This expression figured in the work of such 19th-century German writers as Nietzsche, who regarded it as an admirable course of action. Today it is often used with mildly humorous effect, as in the example. [c. 1900]