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

After precious few nights out without our kids, we had willingly suspended our better judgment—only to be reminded, expensively, that there are better ways to signal how you feel.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 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

There were precious few health laws in those days, and nobody, least of all Mrs Pratchett, ever thought of using a little shovel for getting out the sweets as they do today.

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl