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Precious vs Exquisite - What's the difference?

precious | exquisite | Related terms |

Precious is a related term of exquisite.


As a proper noun precious

is .

As an adjective exquisite is

especially fine or pleasing; exceptional.

As a noun exquisite is

(rare) fop, dandy.

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.

    exquisite

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Especially fine or pleasing; exceptional.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.
  • (lb) Carefully adjusted; precise; accurate; exact.
  • ; far-fetched; abstruse.
  • Of special beauty or rare excellence.
  • Exceeding; extreme; keen, in a bad or a good sense.
  • :
  • Of delicate perception or close and accurate discrimination; not easy to satisfy; exact; fastidious.
  • :
  • *(Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)
  • *:his books of Oriental languages, wherein he was exquisite
  • Synonyms

    * beautiful, delicate, discriminating

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (rare) Fop, dandy.
  • * 1925 , , Random House, London:2007, p. 42.
  • So striking was his appearance that two exquisites , emerging from the Savoy Hotel and pausing on the pavement to wait for a vacant taxi, eyed him with pained disapproval as he approached, and then, starting, stared in amazement.
  • *:: 'Good Lord!' said the first exquisite .