The completion of the railroad was the precipitating cause in the extinction of waterborne commerce.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

Adjective : a precipitate fall down the stairs. ,a precipitate retreat. ,a precipitate stop; a precipitate decision. ,a precipitate marriage.    From Dictionary.com. 

Verb (used with object) : to precipitate an international crisis. ,He precipitated himself into the struggle.    From Dictionary.com. 

To be fair, while cash may be the main precipitating factor behind the shifts, it's not the only one.    From Wordnik.com.  ['Friday Night Lights' tackles Season 4 changes, and scores] Reference

Business school discourse today has a new set of topical lessons, emphasizing the roles played by MBAs in precipitating the global.    From Wordnik.com.  [Education: K-12, College & Graduate School News] Reference

Or were these parties innocent and old David Moore the one motive power in precipitating a tragedy, the result of which had been to enrich him and impoverish them?.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Filigree Ball] Reference

What does that have to do with anything, especially when he goes on to omit the Georgians role in precipitating the (admittedly disproportionate) aggression. — jmz4.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lieberman: Obama Has Not Always Put Country First - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com] Reference

It is as summons that we see expression precipitating transcendence.    From Wordnik.com.  [Emmanuel Levinas] Reference

GROSS: What was the precipitating event behind him leaving?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North] Reference

Prof. SWEENEY: You really often need a real precipitating event.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Renewable Energy Debate Heats Up In The Mojave] Reference

The two artists argued, precipitating van Gogh's self-mutilation.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tortured Souls] Reference

At the same time, there do seem to be final, precipitating events.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jeff Kass: Columbine and Hartford Distributors Shooting] Reference

Insurgent leaders cited the FENASTRES bombing as a precipitating event.    From Wordnik.com.  [Phil Bronstein: Is Live-Tweeting About Rape in Haiti a Wake-Up Call or a Mistake?] Reference

The respective land forces were ever on the point of precipitating the end.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Philippine Islands] Reference

Same event, different precipitating event and mood, different interpretation.    From Wordnik.com.  [Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.: Another Reason Why Thoughts Are Not Facts] Reference

The precipitating incident — the horror show on the plane — wasn't unique.    From Wordnik.com.  [Fasting to a Comfortable Death] Reference

In the mean time it so happens that no necessity exists for precipitating matters.    From Wordnik.com.  [Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals] Reference

They are produced by precipitating water-soluble dyes upon a suitable substratum or base.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Building of a Book A Series of Practical Articles Written by Experts in the Various Departments of Book Making and Distributing] Reference

And it seems to be precipitating out and coating fairly large parts of the Gulf of Mexico.    From Wordnik.com.  [Assessing The BP Spill's Impact] Reference

Typically, after precipitating an international crisis Pyongyang has returned to negotiations.    From Wordnik.com.  [Never Too Late to Say ‘I’m Sorry’] Reference

The Federalists were abusing their majority, and precipitating their unexpected but certain ruin.    From Wordnik.com.  [Albert Gallatin American Statesmen Series, Vol. XIII] Reference

Barings became seriously involved, their heavy obligations precipitating a general financial crisis.    From Wordnik.com.  [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"] Reference

He had no intention of precipitating a situation in which he would discover such powers to his sorrow.    From Wordnik.com.  [Adaptation] Reference

He flung them some small coins, thereby precipitating a scramble and a fight, and they went slowly in.    From Wordnik.com.  [In Her Own Right] Reference

And two of them in particular had like precipitating events that made them think we got to get out now.    From Wordnik.com.  [Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North] Reference

The thin crust of the volcano's mouth had broken through, precipitating him into the deep, hollow interior.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Jameson Satellite] Reference

In this case, dependent on the precipitating event that led to the mood of feeling depressed versus excited.    From Wordnik.com.  [Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.: Another Reason Why Thoughts Are Not Facts] Reference

The "Tutankhamen effect" precipitating a rock slide to bury the entrances to the tunnels leading into the mountain.    From Wordnik.com.  [Targeting A Buried Threat] Reference

The other was that this election might be used by the extreme Southern democrats as an excuse for precipitating war.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Life of Abraham Lincoln] Reference

He next raises the war-whoop of "On to Richmond," and thereby aids in precipitating the terrible disaster of Bull Run.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hidden Treasures Or, Why Some Succeed While Others Fail] Reference

Inc. warned of declining sales, mounting losses and vanishing liquidity, precipitating a sell-off in the company's stock.    From Wordnik.com.  [American Apparel Warns on Liquidity] Reference

In this paper we revisit the debate over the role of the banking panics in 1930-33 in precipitating the Great Contraction.    From Wordnik.com.  [Monday NBER round-up] Reference

Moreover, the gas is open to the objection of interfering with the lime-sulphur compound by precipitating some of the sulphur.    From Wordnik.com.  [Apple Growing] Reference

This substance, being insoluble, can be obtained by precipitating a solution of the chloride or sulphate with a soluble hydroxide.    From Wordnik.com.  [An Elementary Study of Chemistry] Reference

The success of Alba's portrait, which promised to be a masterpiece, ended by precipitating her into a fierce and abominable action.    From Wordnik.com.  [The French Immortals Series — Complete] Reference

The precipitating event was the capture by Lebanese Shiite fighters of three Israeli soldiers on patrol along their border with Lebanon.    From Wordnik.com.  [Terror Watch: Virtual Jihad] Reference

I knew exactly the answer to the “Why now?” question, except there was no single precipitating factor, and that was hard to explain.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ann, meet Bob] Reference

But there's no doubt Oklahoma City permanently changed things, precipitating the closing of those critical blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue.    From Wordnik.com.  [Still In The Line Of Fire] Reference

States also precipitating itself into the whirlpool of the war, would they be bound to transfer their initiative to the Swiss or the Dutch.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915] Reference