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PUNCTILIOUS
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Dictionary entry overview: What does punctilious mean?
• PUNCTILIOUS (adjective)
The adjective PUNCTILIOUS has 1 sense:
1. marked by precise accordance with details
Familiarity information: PUNCTILIOUS used as an adjective is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by precise accordance with details
Synonyms:
meticulous; punctilious
Context example:
punctilious in his attention to rules of etiquette
Similar:
precise (sharply exact or accurate or delimited)
Derivation:
punctiliousness (strict attention to minute details)
Context examples
You were exacting, proud, punctilious, selfish.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I made no complaint, but Wolf Larsen demanded the most punctilious sea etiquette in my case,—far more than poor Johansen had ever received; and at the expense of several rows, threats, and much grumbling, he brought the hunters to time.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
My uncle drew on his driving-gloves and arranged his costume with punctilious neatness; but I observed that he glanced up and down the road with a haggard and yet expectant eye before he took his seat.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"The way the arrow hits the target is more important than the way it is shot; the way you listen is more important than the way you talk." (Bhutanese proverb)
"He who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything." (Arabic proverb)
"Every little pot has a fitting lid." (Dutch proverb)