precious

Universal Words adjective, adverb adjective 1 rare and worth a lot of money: a precious vase * The crown was set with precious jewels-diamonds, rubies and emeralds. seealsoPRECIOUSMETAL, PRECIOUSSTONE 2 valuable or important and not to be wasted: Clean water is a precious commodity in that part of the world. * You're wasting precious time! 3 loved or valued very much: precious memories / possessions 4 [onlybeforenoun] (spoken) used to show you are angry that another person thinks sth is very important: I didn't touch your precious car! 5 (disapproving) (especially of people and their behaviour) very formal, exaggerated and not natural in what you say and do preciousness noun [U]: the preciousness of an old friendship * His writings reveal an unattractive preciousness of style. adverb (informal) ~ little / few used to emphasize the fact that there is very little of sth or that there are very few of sth: There's precious little to do in this town. * Precious few people can afford those prices.