précieuse
Americannoun
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one of the 17th-century literary women of France who affected an extreme care in the use of language.
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an affected or pretentious woman, especially one marked by preciosity in manner or speech.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of précieuse
1720–30; < French; feminine of précieux ( def. ); see -euse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Ménage and Chapelain had, among others, much to do with her education, and she was a member of the celebrated coterie of the Hôtel Rambouillet, though her satirical humour saved her from being a précieuse.
From A Short History of French Literature by Saintsbury, George
As the précieuse did nothing according to common usage, she could not dine p. 50like another.
From The Essays of "George Eliot" Complete by Sheppard, Nathan
It was "searched," a little précieuse, and the tales themselves were diaphanous enough, polished little contes, the points subtle, the action turning upon minute psychological distinctions.
From The Spinner's Book of Fiction by Various
But she, with many of her peers, was too rich in sarcastic common sense to be a précieuse ridicule.
From Classic French Course in English by Wilkinson, William Cleaver
Miss Neville should have reigned at the Hotel de Rambouillet when précieuse was more honoured than now.
From Infelice by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
That which vauntingly styles itself the écriture artiste must reap its reward promptly in praise from the précieuses ridicules of the hour.
From Inquiries and Opinions by Matthews, Brander
In a sort of loud cackling—a voice she sometimes surprisingly adopted—she replied, "Oh, give me a blow-out of tripe and onions!" to the confusion of the précieuses.
From Some Diversions of a Man of Letters by Gosse, Edmund
About our author, however, we know that his experience has been long, and of the best, that he does not speak from a hasty acquaintance with a few contemporary précieux and précieuses.
From On the Sublime by Havell, H. L. (Herbert Lord)
She was carefully brought up under Ménage and Rapin, among others, and was one of the most brilliant of the précieuses of the Hôtel Rambouillet.
From A Short History of French Literature by Saintsbury, George
When in 1659 his comedy Les précieuses Ridicules took Paris by storm, it did more than make a reformation of the manners of its own.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 by Johnson, Rossiter
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
