Precious vs Chary - What's the difference?
precious | chary | Related terms |
Of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author=(Polly Toynbee)
, volume=189, issue=10, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Regarded with love or tenderness.
(pejorative) Treated with too much reverence.
(pejorative) Contrived to be cute or charming.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 24, author=Nathan Rabin, work=The Onion AV Club
, title= Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
* J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
* 1909 , Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons (page 57)
(obsolete) Sad; sorrowful; grievous.
Disposed to cherish with care; careful.
Cautious; wary; shy.
* act 1 scene 3 lines 35-36
*1598 , Shakespeare, lines 11-12
* 2007 , Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant , ISBN 978-0-399-15446-1 Page 182
Sparing; not lavish; not disposed to give freely.
*
*
*
Precious is a related term of chary.
As a proper noun precious
is .As an adjective chary is
(obsolete) sad; sorrowful; grievous.precious
English
Alternative forms
* pretious (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)Britain's booming birthrate, passage=People are a good thing, the most precious resource in a rich economy, so the progressive-minded feel. Only misanthropists disagree or the dottier Malthusians who send green-ink tweets deploring any state assistance for child-rearing.}}
Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3, passage=In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekick suggests Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.}}
Synonyms
* (of high value) dear, valuable * (contrived to charm) saccharine, syrupy, tweeNoun
(es)- “It isn't fair, my precious , is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
- She sat down with the dogs in her lap. "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses ?"
Adverb
(-)- There is precious little we can do.
External links
* (wikipedia "precious")chary
English
Adjective
(er)- The chariest maid is prodigal enough'' / ''If she unmasks her beauty to the moon.
- Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary / ''As tender nurse her babe from faring ill
- "...When Lord Berek speaks with you and your companions alone, as he must, be chary in your replies."