precious
[presh-uh s]
- of high price or great value; very valuable or costly: precious metals.
- highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial, or moral quality: precious memories.
- dear; beloved: a precious child.
- affectedly or excessively delicate, refined, or nice: precious manners.
- flagrant; gross: a precious fool.
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- a dearly beloved person; darling.
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- extremely; very: She wastes precious little time.
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Origin of precious
Synonyms
See more synonyms for precious on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for precious
Contemporary Examples
Being there teaches you to think quickly, edit yourself, and not get too precious about your own work.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s GreatnessMarlow Stern
January 7, 2015
From a lyrical standpoint, there are precious few that can catch Kendrick.
The 14 Best Songs of 2014: Bobby Shmurda, Future Islands, Drake, and MoreMarlow Stern
December 31, 2014
Second, they threaten one of the most precious resources in our state: public education that is open to all children.
The precious cargo: two American humanitarian workers with Ebola.
There are precious few large-scale, ambitious, original works.
Christopher Nolan Uncut: On ‘Interstellar,’ Ben Affleck’s Batman, and the Future of MankindMarlow Stern
November 10, 2014
Historical Examples
More than one of these precious volumes were transcribed entirely by her own hand.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
They filled two bottles they had remaining with the precious fluid.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique.
It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time, on acrimony and division.
Fellow citizens, we must not waste the precious gift of this time.
precious
- beloved; dear; cherished
- very costly or valuable
- held in high esteem, esp in moral or spiritual matters
- very fastidious or affected, as in speech, manners, etc
- informal worthlessyou and your precious ideas!
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- informal (intensifier)there's precious little left
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Word Origin
C13: from Old French precios, from Latin pretiōsus valuable, from pretium price, value
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for precious
adj.
mid-13c., from Old French precios "precious, costly, honorable, of great worth" (11c., Modern French précieux), from Latin pretiosus "costly, valuable," from pretium "value, worth, price" (see price (n.)). Meaning "over-refined" in English first recorded late 14c. In Johnson's day, it also had a secondary inverted sense of "worthless." Related: Preciously; preciousness.
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n.
"beloved or dear person or object," 1706, from precious (adj.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper