preciousadjective
uk/ˈpreʃ.əs/us/ˈpreʃ.əs/precious adjective (VALUABLE)
B2 of great value because of being rare, expensive, or important:
a precious gift
a precious moment/memory
Clean water is a precious commodity in many parts of the world.
You're so precious to me.
More examples
- The museum is full of rare and precious treasures.
- a collection of precious objects
- precious stones
- Hurry up now, you're wasting precious time!
- This letter is really precious to me because it's the last one that Pete ever wrote.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Expensive & luxurious
- costly
- delicacy
- deluxe
- exclusive
- executive
- expensive
- grand
- grandly
- lush
- luxurious
- no expense is spared idiom
- opulent
- plush
- premium-rate
- priceless
- sumptuous
- swish
- tony
- unaffordable
- white elephant
See more results »
precious adjective (NOT NATURAL)
mainly UK disapproving behaving in a very formal and unnatural way by giving too much attention to details that are not important and trying too hard to be perfect:
He's so precious about his work that he never gets anything done.
Don't you hate the precious way she speaks, pronouncing each single consonant so precisely.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Affected & insincere
- affectation
- affected
- artificial
- artsy-fartsy
- arty-farty
- cheesy
- fey
- forced
- glib
- histrionic
- histrionics
- hollowly
- meretricious
- pious
- preciously
- precocious
- pretension
- pretentious
- pseud
- slick
See more results »
precious adjective (SHOWING DISLIKE)
[ before noun ] informal used to express dislike and/or anger:
You and your precious car - it's all you're interested in!
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Expressions of anger
- bally
- beg
- biscuit
- blast
- blasted
- bleeding
- bloody
- dare
- dash
- fie
- flip
- flipping
- for crying out loud! idiom
- freaking
- pipe
- put/stick that in your pipe and smoke it! idiom
- sodding
- that (really) takes the biscuit idiom
- that does it! idiom
- what a business! idiom
See more results »
preciousness
noun [ U ] uk/ˈpreʃ.əs.nəs/us/ˈpreʃ.əs.nəs/
preciousadverb
uk/ˈpreʃ.əs/us/ˈpreʃ.əs/informalvery:
Lots of people will start, but precious few will finish.
Be careful - you'll be precious little help if you come back injured.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: very & extreme
- abject
- awful
- badly
- beyond
- classic
- classical
- devastating
- drop dead! idiom
- eminently
- esp
- especially
- heartily
- impossibly
- perfect
- sheer
- specially
- supremely
- thoroughly
- whole
- wide
See more results »