adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Worthless; great; over-nice: as PRECIOUS little = very little; a PRECIOUS humbug = an eminent rascal, and so forth.

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  1383.  CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, Prol. to Wife of Bath’s Tale [TYRWHITT], line 5659.

        In swiche estat as God hath cleped us
I wol persever, I n’am not PRECIOUS.

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  1535.  COVERDALE, trans. Bible, Ezek. xvi. 30. Thou PRECIOUS whore.

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  1605.  JONSON, Volpone, or the Fox, i. 1. Your worship is a PRECIOUS ASS.

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  1612.  WEBSTER, The White Devil, iv. 4. Now my PRECIOUS gypsy…. We have many wenches about the town heat too fast.

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  c. 1616.  FLETCHER, Bonduca, iv. 2. Hengo. Run, run, ye rogues, ye PRECIOUS rogues, ye rank rogues! Ibid. (1617), The Mad Lover, iii. 3. Oh, you’re a PRECIOUS man! two days in town, and never see your old friend.

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  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], III. This PRECIOUS abigail … was just as young, just as pretty, and just as loose as her mistress.

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  1754.  The Connoisseur, No. 7. This PRECIOUS fooling, though it highly entertained them, gave me great disgust.

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  1777.  SHERIDAN, The School for Scandal, v. 2. A PRECIOUS couple they are.

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  c. 1790.  Song, ‘The Flash Man of St. Giles’ [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 74]. For we have mill’d a PRECIOUS go.

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  1792.  LORD THURLOW, Letter to Cowper [Cowper’s Letters (1834), ii. 318]. PRECIOUS limbs was at first an expression of great feeling, till vagabonds, draymen, &c., brought upon it the character of coarseness and ridicule.

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  1821.  P. EGAN, Life in London, II. ii. Suke swears by her PRECIOUS sparklers that she will have a fight.

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  1837.  DICKENS, Pickwick Papers (1857), 443. PRECIOUS warm walking, isn’t it? said Lowden, drawing a Bramah key from his pocket, with a small plug therein to keep out the dust.

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  1857.  T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, I. v. PRECIOUS little good we get out of that. Ibid., II. vii. It’s a PRECIOUS sight harder than I thought.

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  1869.  BLACKMORE, Lorna Doone, xxvii. A PRECIOUS heavy book it was.

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  1881.  W. BLACK, The Beautiful Wretch, xix. ‘She might as well try to leave off her affectations as her clothes. She couldn’t go about without any.’ ‘She goes about with PRECIOUS little,’ said Mr. Tom.

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