précieuxadj.n.

1831 N. Amer. Rev. July 73 Thus, also, some features of the style precieux of the hôtel de Rambouillet, so often lashed by Boileau, and laughed at by Moliére, may be imputed to the malign influence of the constellation of pedants, celebrated in France under the title of Pleiades, in the sixteenth century.]

1891 M. S. van de Velde French Fiction of Today I. iv. 109 A certain précieux hyper-refinement.

1953 O. de Mourgues (title) Metaphysical, Baroque and précieux poetry.

1969 Listener 8 May 637/1 There was point in A. C. Benson's defence in 1910 of ‘The May Queen’, that no précieux writer, with a care for his reputation, could have dared to write it... Certainly mid-19th-century literature was not précieux: it took risks.

1993 Atlantic June 134/2 As a wine merchant and an author of wine catalogues, Mr. Loftus is not immune to the précieux jargon of his trade.

1898 N. Amer. Rev. Nov. 597 Letters, like virtue, are their own reward. But perhaps this view is not popular at literary tea parties; perhaps Royalties and so much ‘per thousand’ are there held fitter themes for erudite discussion. Perhaps there is now such a being as the commercial precieux!

1939 Burlington Mag. Mar. p. xviii/1 The lives of other précieux in the stereotyped social and literary intercourse of the Salons.

1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 63/1 Arno, Nash, and Thurber are brittle, wistful little précieux beside Capp.

2000 T. Robbins Fierce Invalids 208 The silver-haired précieux (he could be foppish even in jeans) had unlocked the storeroom, shoved aside cases of champagne, crates of capers, and restaurant-sized jars of olives.