precious

Pluralpreciouses

1. 1
   adjective

   Of great value, whether in money or because it cannot easily be replaced.

   The museum's most precious artifact is a thousand-year-old manuscript.

   Fresh drinking water becomes precious during a long drought.

   Similarvaluable, priceless, invaluable, prized, treasured

   Oppositeworthless, cheap, valueless

   Note

   The word began as a matter of price. It came through Old French from Latin pretiōsus, built on pretium, “value, price,” the root of price itself. Old French already used it for “beloved” and for “affected, finical,” so the fond and scornful meanings arrived with the word. Used sincerely, it pairs with resource or gemstones. Said of someone else's lawn, as in “their precious grass verge,” it turns sarcastic.

2. 2
   adjective

   Held dear; regarded with love or tenderness.

   Every moment with her grandparents felt precious.

   The soldier carried a precious letter from home all through the war.

   Similarcherished, treasured, dear, beloved, prized

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A loved one; a darling.

   She called the baby her precious and rocked him to sleep.

   Grandpa greeted each grandchild as his precious.

   Similardarling, sweetheart, treasure, angel, love

   Note

   The adjective of affection standing alone as a noun, almost always after my. Unlike most adjectives turned nouns, it takes a regular plural: Mrs. Teignmouth Shore's The Pride of the Graftons (1909) has a woman ask her lapful of dogs, “will I, my preciouses?” Tolkien's Gollum, in The Hobbit (1937), made “my precious” famous as a hissing endearment.

4. 4
   adjectivederogatory

   Self-consciously contrived to seem cute or charming.

   The café's menu was too precious, with whimsical names for every plain dish.

   Critics found the novel's style precious and overworked.

   Similartwee, cutesy, affected, contrived, mannered

   Note

   A reviewer's word for charm that tries too hard: whimsy, twinkle and quirk laid on until they show. Nathan Rabin, reviewing Men in Black 3 in The Onion AV Club (2012), praises an actor for rescuing a character who “easily could have come across as precious.” The fault lies in the effort that shows, not in the elaborateness that the overwrought-style meaning objects to.

5. 5
   adjectivederogatory

   Regarded with excessive reverence, as if too sacred to question or alter.

   Over the decades the founder's words became precious, quoted as if beyond criticism.

   The gallery treats the sketch as precious, displaying it but never lending it out.

   Similarsacrosanct, sacred, untouchable, hallowed

   Note

   Here the word's praise is turned against its object. Calling something precious in this way says it has been valued past the point of sense. Fussiness is the usual target, such as hours spent on a portrait's eyes, and the charge often comes hedged, as in “a bit precious.” It judges an attitude, while the “contrived cuteness” meaning faults the result.

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquial

   Extremely protective of something or insistent on strict standards concerning it.

   He's precious about his garden and won't let anyone else prune the roses.

   The chef is precious about her knives and never lets staff borrow them.

   Similarprotective, possessive, fussy, particular

   Oppositerelaxed, easygoing, casual

   Note

   A construction as much as a meaning: this sense takes about and an object, as in precious about their work, their kit, or being Irish. It is often intensified with very or so. Negated, it names a useful looseness. The musician Jeremy Greenspan, describing songs he wrote quickly, says he “wasn't too precious about it.” The core idea is possessive guarding, not tenderness.

7. 7
   adverb

   Very; used as an intensifier, chiefly before 'little' or 'few.'

   They had precious little time before the deadline.

   Precious few people remember the old town as it once was.

   Similarvery

   Note

   An intensifier with a nearly fixed partner: precious little, precious few. The effect is ironic understatement, since “precious little we can do” means almost nothing at all. It does not compare, so there is no “more precious little.” It shares its emphatic force with the “utter” meaning, which modifies nouns instead.

8. 8
   adjectivecolloquial

   Thorough; utter; used to emphasize how complete something is, especially a mess.

   He made a precious mess of the accounts before anyone noticed.

   The whole event turned into a precious disaster.

   Similarcomplete, total, utter, right, proper

9. 9
   adjectiveironic

   Excessively elaborate or overrefined in style, to the point of being hard to follow.

   Editors flagged the essay's precious phrasing and asked for plainer language.

   His column grew more precious each year, layered with needless allusions.

   Similaraffected, mannered, pretentious, overwrought, florid

   Oppositeplain, simple, unaffected, natural

   Note

   An editor's and critic's complaint about style rather than substance. Prose is precious in this sense when its ornament crowds out what it is trying to say, through needless allusion, fussy diction or layered phrasing. Despite its look of praise, the word is always a fault here and never a compliment. The usual cure editors ask for is plainer, more direct language.

10. 10
    adjectivederogatorycolloquial

    Used before a noun to express irritation or contempt; blasted; confounded.

    Where is that precious cat hiding now?

    I've had quite enough of your precious excuses.

    Similarblasted, wretched, darned, confounded, blessed

    Note

    Sarcasm does the work here. The word keeps its look of praise while the tone strips it away, usually after a possessive like your or their. Dickens, in Nicholas Nickleby (1839), has a character blame a disaster on “your precious caution.” It sits before the noun, and in speech the contempt is carried by the stress.

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