0 the quality of being very valuable because of being rare, expensive, or important:
1 behaviour that is very formal and unnatural because it gives too much attention to details that are not important and tries too hard to be perfect:
He needs to understand the preciousness of the lives he has destroyed.
He recited a Chinese proverb about the preciousness of spring showers for farmers.
Mary assumed with delight that this was another special recognition of her preciousness.
Some viewers have come to loathe his films for their preciousness.
She is particular to the point of preciousness about her living environment.
Other factors that may explain the condition of the plaques under consideration are the hardness and preciousness of jade.
The fact that they are repeating units means that any tendency towards individual preciousness is tempered by larger imperatives of structure, function and economy.
