precious

English Online Dictionary. What means precious‎? What does precious mean?

English

Alternative forms

• pretious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiōsus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛʃ.əs/
• Rhymes: -ɛʃəs

Adjective

precious (comparative more precious, superlative most precious)

1. Of high value or worth.

2. Regarded with love or tenderness.

3. (derogatory) Treated with too much reverence.

4. (informal, followed by about) Extremely protective or strict (about something).
5. (informal, derogatory) Blasted; damned.
6. (derogatory) Contrived to be cute or charming.
7. (colloquial) Thorough; utter.

   a precious rascal

Synonyms

• (of high value): dear, valuable
• (contrived to charm): saccharine, syrupy, twee

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

precious (plural preciouses)

1. Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.

Adverb

precious (not comparable)

1. Very; an intensifier.

   There is precious little we can do.

   precious few pictures of him exist

Usage notes

This adverb is chiefly used before few and little; usage with other adjectives (slight, small, scant) is much more sporadic, and is in any case limited to the semantic field of “little, small, scarce, few”.

Translations

Further reading

• precious on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “precious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “precious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.