English Explanatory Dictionary

precious

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Of high value or worth.
  2. Regarded with love or tenderness.
  3. Treated with too much reverence.
  4. Excessively complicated.
  5. Extremely protective or strict (about something).
  6. Blasted; damned.
  7. Contrived to be cute or charming.
  8. Thorough; utter.
noun
  1. Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
adv
  1. Very; an intensifier.
name
  1. A surname transferred from the nickname, originating as a male or female nickname.
  2. A female given name from English.

Pronunciation

/ˈpɹɛʃ.əs/ [ˈpʰɹʷɛʃ.əs] ~ [ˈpʰɹʷɛʃ.s̩] en-us-precious.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-precious.wav

Word forms

precious more precious most precious pretious preciouses

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.

Synonyms

dear valuable without price estimable worthy worthly prizable treasurous worth every penny invaluable precious priceless unpriced unvaluable worth one's weight in gold confounded ever-loving raasclaat 4ucking accursed bally blasted bleeding bleeping blessed blimming blinking bloody blooming consarned cotton-picking cowson cursed dadburn dadgum dagnabbed damn damnable damned dang danged darn darned dashed deuced doggone dratted effing fecking flaming flipping freaking fricking frigging fucking fudging fugging furshlugginer jiggered goddam

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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