PRECIOUS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Precious

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/prˈɛʃəs/ Listen

adjective

Precious adj.

Of great price; costly; as, a precious stone. "The precious bane."

Of great value or worth; very valuable; highly esteemed; dear; beloved; as, precious recollections. "She is more precious than rules." "Many things which are most precious are neglected only because the value of them lieth hid." Note: Also used ironically; as, a precious rascal.

Particular; fastidious; overnice; overrefined. Cf. Precieuse, Preciosity. "Lest that precious folk be with me wroth." "Elaborate embroidery of precious language."

Precious metals, the uncommon and highly valuable metals, esp. gold and silver.

Precious stones, gems; jewels.

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Etymology of 'Precious'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Precious" Quotes from Famous Books

... with nothing but his splendid brain between his wife and absolute want. French stole a glance at Deena, who was looking more beautiful than he had ever seen her, and wondered whether she found her lot satisfactory; whether there were not times when Simeon's absence was precious to her. Without disloyalty to his friend, he hoped so, for he had something to tell her before the day was over that might lead to a temporary separation, and he hated to think of those lovely eyes swimming in tears—all women were ...

— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 5, June 1905 • Various

... grammar for the use of his daughter. In later years, when he found his chief delight and highest distinction in intercourse with men of letters, Peter Martyr would hardly have neglected to mention such precious early associations ...

— De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) - The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera • Trans. by Francis Augustus MacNutt

... raised a weak and earthly body to such sublimity. Hence in the General Council of Ephesus (P. II, Act. I) we read the saying of St. Theophilus: "Just as the best workmen are esteemed not merely for displaying their skill in precious materials, but very often because by making use of the poorest clay and commonest earth, they show the power of their craft; so the best of all workmen, the Word of God, did not come down to us by taking a heavenly body of some most precious matter, but shewed ...

— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... Yellow River, like a picture set in a gilded frame, reminding one of that river of paradise which "encompasseth the whole land of Havilah where there is gold." Whether there is gold in Kansuh we have yet to learn; but no doubt some grains of the precious metal might be picked up amongst its ...

— The Awakening of China • W.A.P. Martin

... you the proof of trust should make it more sacred and precious still. I have found the solution of the last problem over which we pored. You know that while we discovered the means of imprisoning the gas in a concentrated form of scarcely appreciable bulk, it was not always our obedient slave, ...

— The Son of Clemenceau • Alexandre (fils) Dumas

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