precious
Part of speech: adj
noun
adv
Morphological type: simple
Topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
publishing
writing
Etymology: Inherited 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.
Inflected forms:
form: more precious
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most precious
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: pretious
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: preciouses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pretious
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: pretious
pos: adv
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Of high value or worth.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
People are a good thing, the most precious resource in a rich economy, so the progressive-minded feel. Only misanthropists disagree or the dottier Malthusians who send green-ink tweets deploring any state assistance for child-rearing.
gloss: Regarded with love or tenderness.
pos: adj
examples: The way my partner looks at me is just so precious.
gloss: Treated with too much reverence.
pos: adj
tags: derogatory
examples: He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.
gloss: Excessively complicated.
pos: adj
tags: ironic
gloss: Extremely protective or strict (about something).
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: Writers are often very precious about their work.
Pro chefs can be very precious about their kit. Watch a bartender trying to borrow a simple, cheap fruit-knife from the kitchen and you'll see what I mean.
Well, I didn't realize it until almost after the fact. I wrote all these songs very quickly; I did a whole lot of material and wasn't too precious about it. The lyric writing was done in much the same way. I wrote stuff and sang it, and the demos stuck, which is different from what I've done before, when I edited it.
Hearing what a struggle it was for her, I began to understand why some people are so precious about being Irish. Being second-generation Irish, she had the option to hide behind her accent. Instead she would thump her fist to defend Irish people from those speaking out against them.
The course is not precious about overly academic sources, either. ¶ "The students are confused when I tell them to try and trace something down with a quick Wikipedia search, because they've been told not to do it," she [Christina Ladam] said. "Not for research papers, but if you're trying to find out if a site is legitimate or if somebody has a history as a conspiracy theorist and you show them how to follow the page's citation, it's quick and effective, which means it's more likely to be used."
gloss: Blasted; damned.
pos: adj
tags: derogatory
informal
examples: It’s all owing to your precious caution that they got hold of it. If you had let me burn it, and taken my word that it was gone, it would have been a heap of ashes behind the fire, instead of being whole and sound, inside of my great-coat.
gloss: Contrived to be cute or charming.
pos: adj
tags: derogatory
examples: In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekick suggests Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.
gloss: Thorough; utter.
pos: adj
tags: colloquial
examples: a precious rascal
gloss: Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
pos: noun
examples: “It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
She sat down with the dogs in her lap. "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses?"
What'll it take to get it through to you precious?
I'm over this, why do you wanna throw it away like this?
Such a mess, why would I want to watch you?
gloss: Very; an intensifier.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: There is precious little we can do.
precious few pictures of him exist
Related words: appraise
appreciate
depreciate
praise
preciosity
precious few
precious little
price
Derived words: eight-precious
non-precious
nonprecious
overprecious
Precious Blood
precious coral
preciously
precious metal
preciousness
precious stone
semiprecious
semi-precious
unprecious
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