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Precious vs Cherish - What's the difference?

precious | cherish |

As a proper noun precious

is .

As a verb cherish is

to treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid.

precious

English

Alternative forms

* pretious (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • 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= 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.}}
  • 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= 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, twee

    Noun

    (es)
  • Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
  • * J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
  • “It isn't fair, my precious , is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
  • * 1909 , Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons (page 57)
  • 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.

    cherish

    English

    Verb

  • To treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid.
  • *, chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished .}}
  • To hold dear; to embrace with interest; to indulge; to encourage; to foster; to promote; as, to cherish religious principle.
  • (obsolete) To cheer, gladden.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vi:
  • Her merry fit she freshly gan to reare, / And did of ioy and iollitie deuize, / Her selfe to cherish , and her guest to cheare [...].