precious
adjective
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Definition of precious
(Entry 1 of 2)
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Synonyms & Antonyms for precious
Synonyms: Adjective
big-ticket, costly, dear, expensive, extravagant, high, high-end, high-ticket, premium, priceless, pricey (also pricy), spendy [chiefly Northwest], ultraexpensive, valuable
Antonyms: Adjective
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Examples of precious in a Sentence
Adjective
That so many of China's cleverest and most creative men and women had to sell their books and their most precious carvings and family seals to keep themselves alive, while corpulent nationalists and their friends dined well in local banquet halls, gave them some right to schadenfreude. — Simon Winchester, The Man Who Loved China, 2008 Of course, the war pronounces on us all. Some precious glee we seek is absent, the season less substantial, less likeable. — Richard Ford, Wall Street Journal, 14-15 June 2008 The world is, as usual, a frightening place to enter for all save the precious few impaired by inherited security. — David Mamet, True and False, 1997 … and, though to him those precious moments at the end of each day had symbolized the realization of his every hope, to her they had meant not a goddamn thing. — Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 1997 diamonds and other precious stones We can save precious time by taking this shortcut. They were able to be together for only a few precious hours. the family's most precious momentsAdverb
She had precious little to say. There are precious few hours of sunlight left.
Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
Sloane is about to become a stepmom, too Jozy has a four-year-old son named Cameron, and their family of three is beyond precious. — Blake Bakkila, Good Housekeeping, "Sloane Stephens's Future Husband Jozy Altidore Is a Professional Soccer Player," 12 Aug. 2019 The aesthetic problem is that the object itself is toy-like, too precious to be taken seriously. — Brian T. Allen, National Review, "The American Pavilion in the Venice Biennale: Safe and Sorry," 10 Aug. 2019 This is someone who has had these incredible interactions with the giants in the sky and is able to steal precious and magical things. — Myrna Petlicki, chicagotribune.com, "Director is excited to use Writers’ Theatre space for ‘Into the Woods’," 5 Aug. 2019 Must-tries: The food at Larder looks precious on Instagram and eye-popping in person. — Christina Tkacik, baltimoresun.com, "Larder brings Chez Panisse-style to Old Goucher," 24 July 2019 Time on the moon is precious – and losing any could prove fatal. — Eva Botkin-kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, "Apollo 11 at 50: How the moon landing changed the world," 16 July 2019 As traditional ways of life disappear at an accelerating pace, there is a very precious time window now to study this diversity. — Kai Kupferschmidt, Science | AAAS, "Is the Western mind too WEIRD to study?," 11 July 2019 Such materials are precious to researchers since these rocks have not been exposed to the harsh space environment or dealt with any space weathering. — Loren Grush, The Verge, "Japanese spacecraft grabs second asteroid sample near blasted crater," 11 July 2019 Adjectives and adverbs were as precious to her as cashmere and silk. — The Economist, "Obituary: Judith Krantz died on June 22nd," 6 July 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'precious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for precious
precious
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of precious
(Entry 1 of 2)
precious
adverbEnglish Language Learners Definition of precious (Entry 2 of 2)
See the full definition for precious in the English Language Learners Dictionary
precious
adjective
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