Example Sentences:

Ramayana:  The citizens of Ayodhya lamented the precipitous decline in Rama’s fortunes: crown prince on one night and dressed in tree bark to go on exile the next day.

Mahabharata:  As Duryodhana looked at his demoralized handful of troops remaining by the afternoon of the eighteenth day of the war, he could scarcely believe that his precipitous fall from a position of power was for real.  

Bhagavad-gita:  If we are casual in contemplating on sense objects, we will still experience a precipitous fall from rigid restraint to reckless indulgence.