English
precious
see also: Precious
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈpɹɛʃəs/
Adjective

precious

  1. Of high value or worth.
    The crown had many precious gemstones.   This building work needs site access, and tell the city council that I don't care about a few lorry tyre ruts across their precious grass verge.
  2. Regarded with love or tenderness.
    My precious daughter is to marry.
  3. (pejorative) Treated with too much reverence.
    He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.
  4. (pejorative) Contrived to be cute or charming.
Synonyms Translations Translations Noun

precious (plural preciouses)

  1. Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
    • 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
      “It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
    • 1909, Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons (page 57)
      She sat down with the dogs in her lap. "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses?"
Adverb

precious (not comparable)

  1. Very; an intensifier.
    There is precious little we can do.
    precious few pictures of him exist
Precious
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. A female given name.
    • 2009 Alexander McCall Smith, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Abacus (2010), ISBN 9780349119977, page 6:
      She and Mma Ramotswe were fortunate, with their reasonably straightforward names of Grace and Precious respectively; she had contemporaries who were not so fortunate and had been saddled by their parents with names that were frankly ridiculous.


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