precious

pre|cious1 [ `preʃəs ] adjective **

1. ) worth a lot of money: VALUABLE:

a precious jewel

historic houses with rare and precious contents

a ) loved or valued by someone:

a precious memory

Her daughter is the most precious thing in the world to her.

b ) rare or very necessary and not to be wasted:

Human skills are the nation's most precious resource.

We're wasting precious time sitting around here!

2. ) only before noun SPOKEN used for showing that you are angry with someone for caring too much about someone or something:

You and your precious husband did nothing for me.

3. ) behaving as if something is more important or serious than it really is: AFFECTED:

Pop stars used to be a lot less precious about advertising products.

precious

pre|cious 2 [ `preʃəs ] adverb

precious little/few

used for emphasizing how little there is of something:

I've had precious little sleep over the last two days.

There are precious few decent restaurants left around here.