COSTLY (costlier, costliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: costlier    , costliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does costly mean? 

• COSTLY (adjective)
  The adjective COSTLY has 2 senses:

1. entailing great loss or sacrifice

2. having a high price

  Familiarity information: COSTLY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COSTLY (adjective)

Comparative: costlier   
Superlative: costliest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Entailing great loss or sacrifice

Synonyms:

costly; dearly-won

Context example:

a dearly-won victory

Similar:

expensive (high in price or charging high prices)

Derivation:

cost (value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having a high price

Synonyms:

costly; dear; high-priced; pricey; pricy

Context example:

a pricey restaurant

Similar:

expensive (high in price or charging high prices)

Derivation:

cost (the property of having material worth (often indicated by the amount of money something would bring if sold))

costliness (the quality possessed by something with a great price or value)

 Context examples 

Why are physiologically costly behaviors retained in long-term reproductive partnerships?

(For species that mate for life, bonding behaviors provide advantages, National Science Foundation)

Maróth pointed out it would have been much more costly and time-consuming to research mortar technology than to acquire it this way.

(Hungarian state-owned enterprise acquires Hirtenberger Defence Group, Wikinews)

But feeding the AM fungi with fatty acids is costly, so plants don't let this colonization go unchecked.

(Plant gene discovery could help reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways, National Science Foundation)

Then the queen her mother, packed up a great many costly things; jewels, and gold, and silver; trinkets, fine dresses, and in short everything that became a royal bride.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A pregnancy at an older age is a costly proposition for the mother, whose body has to decide how nutrients are shared with the fetus.

(Placenta changes could mean male offspring of older mums more likely to develop heart problems in later life, University of Cambridge)

Also, smallholders who rely on costly imported feed will be hit if a user fee is imposed.

(Eat less meat to cut drug resistance, SciDev.Net)

Most male frogs call to signal their presence to the opposite sex and find a mate, but this is costly: it could attract predators and parasites, and it uses up energy and time.

(Tiny Brazilian Frogs Deaf to Own Calls, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This huge amount of carbon storage doesn't require costly tree plantings or conversion of farmlands.

(Natural regeneration of tropical forests helps global climate mitigation and forest restoration, NSF)

Instead of designing, synthesising and testing new drugs – an incredibly costly and lengthy process – you can make a few simple changes to the siRNA molecule and treat an entirely different disease.

(Nanoparticles used to transport anti-cancer agent to cells, University of Cambridge)

The executor of the estate forced us to sell because the monthly overhead was costly.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)