Rare vs Precious - What's the difference?
rare | precious |
(cooking, particularly meats) Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense).
* Dryden
Very uncommon; scarce.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= (label) Thin; of low density.
(US) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
* 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 328:
(US) To rear, bring up, raise.
(obsolete) early
* Chapman
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)
As an adjective rare
is (cooking|particularly meats) cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense) or rare can be very uncommon; scarce or rare can be (obsolete) early.As a verb rare
is (us|intransitive) to rear, rise up, start backwards.As a proper noun precious is
.rare
English
Etymology 1
From a dialectal variant of rear, from (etyl) rere, from (etyl) . More at (l).Alternative forms
* (l), (l) (UK)Adjective
(en-adj)- New-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care / Turned by a gentle fire, and roasted rare .
Synonyms
* (cooked very lightly) sanguinaryAntonyms
* (cooked very lightly) well doneDerived terms
* medium-rareEtymology 2
From (etyl) rare, from (etyl) rare, .Adjective
(er)David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
Wild Plants to the Rescue, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
Synonyms
* (very uncommon) scarce, selcouth, seld, seldsome, selly, geason, uncommonAntonyms
* (very uncommon) commonDerived terms
* rare bird * rare earth mineralEtymology 3
Variant of rear .Verb
(rar)- Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
Usage notes
* (rft-sense) Principal current, non-literary use is of the present participle raring' with a verb in "'''raring''' to". The principal verb in that construction is ''go''. Thus, '''''raring''' to go'' ("eager (to start something)") is the expression in which '''''rare is most often encountered as a verb.Etymology 4
Compare rather, rath.Adjective
(en adjective)- Rude mechanicals that rare and late / Work in the market place.
Anagrams
* ----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.
