precious

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   extremely

   there is precious little time left

2. 2
   adj

   obviously contrived to charm

   an insufferably precious performance

3. 3
   adj

   of high worth or cost

   diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds are precious stones

4. 4
   adj

   Of high value or worth.

   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.

5. 5
   adj

   Regarded with love or tenderness.

   The way my partner looks at me is just so precious.

6. 6
   adj

   Treated with too much reverence.

   He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.

7. 7
   adj

   Extremely protective or strict (about something).

   Writers are often very precious about their work.

8. 8
   adj

   Blasted; damned.

   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.

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.