precious few

Idioms  

1. Also, precious little. Very few, very little, as in There are precious few leaves left on the trees, or We have precious little fuel left. In these idioms precious serves as an intensive, a colloquial usage dating from the first half of the 1800s.

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Example Sentences

The case for cuts simply isn’t there at the moment, and there are likely precious few Fed voters who would even consider such a step at this point.

From Barron's • May 23, 2026

"While there are precious few universal paralogs that we know," says Goldman, "they can give us a lot of information about what life was like before the time of the last universal common ancestor."

From Science Daily • Feb. 10, 2026

The party also looks to be on the verge of unveiling some Wales-specific policies and pledges, of which there are precious few.

From BBC • Feb. 2, 2026

With costs rising, plus the aforementioned endowment tax, precious few universities could afford that.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 20, 2025

She had purposely made it difficult and she knew that there were precious few five-year-olds around who would be able to manage it.

From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl