Meanings
- idiomaticAlmost nothing; hardly anything.
Precious little thanks we got!
2 more examples
Sandbanks, marshes, forests, savages, - precious little to eat fit for a civilised man, nothing but Thames water to drink.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 195Then I hit the real world and in the next decade encountered precious little in the way of Twainesque romance or riches.
2007, Darryl Brock, If I Never Get Back, page 22Synonyms: precious few
Synonyms & antonyms
determinerAlmost nothing; hardly anything.
Translations
Hungarian édeskevés
- édeskevésalmost nothing; hardly anything
Spanish cuasi nada
- cuasi nadaalmost nothing; hardly anything
Cite this entry
precious little. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/precious%20little
“precious little.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/precious%20little. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “precious little,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/precious%20little.
Source: precious little on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.