PRECIOUSLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does preciously mean? 

• PRECIOUSLY (adverb)
  The adverb PRECIOUSLY has 1 sense:

1. extremely

  Familiarity information: PRECIOUSLY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRECIOUSLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extremely

Synonyms:

precious; preciously

Context example:

there is precious little time left

Domain usage:

intensifier; intensive (a modifier that has little meaning except to intensify the meaning it modifies)

 Context examples 

Here I started up for I could not contain myself at the thought that the minutes and seconds so preciously laden with Mina's life and happiness were flying from us, since whilst we talked action was impossible.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He was, in short, in his after-dinner mood; more expanded and genial, and also more self- indulgent than the frigid and rigid temper of the morning; still he looked preciously grim, cushioning his massive head against the swelling back of his chair, and receiving the light of the fire on his granite- hewn features, and in his great, dark eyes; for he had great, dark eyes, and very fine eyes, too—not without a certain change in their depths sometimes, which, if it was not softness, reminded you, at least, of that feeling.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)