meticulous
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin meticulōsus (“full of fear, timid, fearful, terrible, frightful”), from metus (“fear”) and -culōsus, extracted from perīculōsus (“perilous”). Sense of “characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details” is a semantic loan from French méticuleux.
Pronunciation
Adjective
meticulous (comparative more meticulous, superlative most meticulous)
- Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.
- Synonyms: painstaking, fastidious; see also Thesaurus:meticulous
- Antonyms: sloppy, careless, slapdash
- meticulous search
- meticulous investigation
- meticulous knowledge
- meticulous report
- 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Roosevelt's Fireside Chat, 28 July 1943:
- The meticulous care with which the operation in Sicily was planned has paid dividends. Our casualties in men, in ships and materiel have been low—in fact, far below our estimate.
- (archaic) Timid, fearful, overly cautious.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cautious
- Antonyms: aggressive, carefree; see also Thesaurus:careless
Derived terms
Translations
characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
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characterized by timid, fearful, overly cautious
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Further reading
- “meticulous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “meticulous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
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