précieuse
noun
one of the 17th-century literary women of France who affected an extreme care in the use of language.
précieuses
-
pluralof précieuse.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
Madame de Longueville reigned there as well as in all the best circles of Paris; and it must be confessed, with her good qualities she had also some of the defects of the best précieuses.
From Political Women, Vol. 1 by Sutherland Menzies
Some of the refined ladies at Mrs. Gilder's objected to his "crude speech," for even in the eighties there were still précieuses.
From Confessions of a Book-Lover by Maurice Francis Egan
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 George Saintsbury
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 Rossiter Johnson
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 Edmund Gosse
