PRECOCIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does precocious mean? 

• PRECOCIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective PRECOCIOUS has 2 senses:

1. characterized by or characteristic of exceptionally early development or maturity (especially in mental aptitude)

2. appearing or developing early

  Familiarity information: PRECOCIOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRECOCIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by or characteristic of exceptionally early development or maturity (especially in mental aptitude)

Context example:

a precocious achievement

Similar:

advanced (farther along in physical or mental development)

Also:

intelligent (having the capacity for thought and reason especially to a high degree)

Antonym:

retarded (relatively slow in mental or emotional or physical development)

Derivation:

precociousness; precocity (intelligence achieved far ahead of normal developmental schedules)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Appearing or developing early

Context example:

precocious flowers appear before the leaves as in some species of magnolias

Similar:

early (being or occurring at an early stage of development)

Domain category:

botany; phytology (the branch of biology that studies plants)

 Context examples 

"You precocious chick! Who put that into your head?" said Jo, enjoying the innocent revelation as much as the Professor.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Relatively frequent clinical manifestations include visual loss, developmental delay, macrocephaly, and precocious puberty.

(Hypothalamic Neoplasm, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

This GONADORELIN analog has been used in the treatment of central precocious puberty and endometriosis.

(Nafarelin Acetate, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Symptoms include acromegaly and precocious puberty.

(Hypothalamic Gangliocytoma, NCI Thesaurus)

I never can quite understand whether my precocious self-dependence confused Mrs. Micawber in reference to my age, or whether she was so full of the subject that she would have talked about it to the very twins if there had been nobody else to communicate with, but this was the strain in which she began, and she went on accordingly all the time I knew her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I flatter myself I'm a 'gentleman growed' as Peggotty said of David, and when you see Amy, you'll find her rather a precocious infant, said Laurie, looking amused at her maternal air.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Unjust!—unjust! said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus into precocious though transitory power: and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression—as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Like young Washington, Mr. Bhaer 'couldn't tell a lie', so he gave the somewhat vague reply that he believed they did sometimes, in a tone that made Mr. March put down his clothesbrush, glance at Jo's retiring face, and then sink into his chair, looking as if the 'precocious chick' had put an idea into his head that was both sweet and sour.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He also possessed a philosophic bent, to the great delight of his grandfather, who used to hold Socratic conversations with him, in which the precocious pupil occasionally posed his teacher, to the undisguised satisfaction of the womenfolk.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)