precious

[[t]pre̱ʃəs[/t]]

1) ADJ-GRADED If you say that something such as a resource is precious, you mean that it is valuable and should not be wasted or used badly.

After four months in foreign parts, every hour at home was precious...

A family break allows you to spend precious time together...

Water is becoming an increasingly precious resource.

Syn:

valuable

2) ADJ-GRADED Precious objects and materials are worth a lot of money because they are rare.

...jewellery and precious objects belonging to her mother.

Syn:

valuable

3) ADJ-GRADED If something is precious to you, you regard it as important and do not want to lose it.

Her family's support is particularly precious to Josie...

Mary left her most precious possession - a small bookcase - to her niece.

4) ADJ: ADJ n (emphasis) People sometimes use precious to emphasize their dislike for things which other people think are important. [INFORMAL]

You don't care about anything but yourself and your precious face.

5) ADJ-GRADED (disapproval) If you describe someone as precious, you mean that they behave in a formal and unnatural way.

Actors, he decided, were too precious and neurotic.

Syn:

affected, mannered

6) PHRASE (emphasis) If you say that there is precious little of something, you are emphasizing that there is very little of it, and that it would be better if there were more. Precious few has a similar meaning.

The battered banks of Japan have had precious little to celebrate recently...

Precious few homebuyers will notice any reduction in their monthly repayments.