preciously, adv.
(ˈprɛʃəslɪ)
[f. as prec. + -ly2.]
† 1. In a costly manner, at great cost or expense. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 500 It nys but wast to burye hym preciously. 1547 Homilies i. Good Works ii. (1859) 54 Unto whose images the people with great devotion invented pilgrimages, preciously decking and censing them, kneeling down and offering to them. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. ii. xvii. (1634) 250 Paul saith that we are preciously bought. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. xxix, Some preciously by shattered porcelain fall, And some by aromatic splinters die. |
2. Valuably; as a precious thing, as a thing of value. Now rare or Obs.
| c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxi. 227 Þei worschipen the Owle. And whan þei han ony of here federes þei kepen hem fulle precyously. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 4935 In thilk Arche and the potte was manna kept preciously. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 241 The time 'twixt six and now Must by vs both be spent most preciously. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 250 A coate of armes cut in a pretious sardonix-stone, and pretiously kept. |
3. Very greatly; exceedingly, extremely. colloq.
| 1607 Middleton Your Five Gallants iv. i. 13 You're much preciously welcome. 1840 Thackeray Cox's Diary Aug., Wks. 1893 VIII. 572 Captain Tagrag was my opponent, and preciously we poked each other. 1884 Manch. Exam. 11 June 5/1 To find out how preciously they had been befooled. |
4. Fastidiously, scrupulously; with delicate workmanship.
| 1862 Hamerton Painter's Camp I. xxix. 390 If..you fall short of this point, your art of painting from nature is not yet quite perfectly and preciously imitative. |