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ere, there a heath, and now and then a wood." Drayton. -- Now now, at this very instant; precisely now. [Obs.] "Why, even now now, at holding up of this finger, and before the turning down of this." J. Webster (1607). -- Now . . . now, alternately; at one time . . . at another time. "Now high, now low, now master up,…

Like an old maid; prim; precise; particular.

Concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; circumstantial; precise; as, a full and particular account of an accident; hence, nice; fastidious; as, a man particular in his dress.

Fine; spruce; smart; precise; dianty. [Obs.] Shak. Picked dogfish. (Zoöl.) See under Dogfish. -- Picked out, ornamented or relieved with lines, or the like, of a different, usually a lighter, color; as, a carriage body dark green, picked out with red.

Uncommonly nice and exact; precise; particular. You are rather point-devise in your accouterments. Shak. Thus he grew up, in logic point-devise, Perfect in grammar, and in rhetoric nice. Longfellow.

An overprecise person; one rigidly or ceremoniously exact in the observance of rules; a formalist; -- formerly applied to the English Puritans. The most dissolute cavaliers stood aghast at the dissoluteness of the emancipated precisian. Macaulay.

The quality or state of being precise; exact limitation; exactness; accuracy; strict conformity to a rule or a standard; definiteness. I have left out the utmost precisions of fractions. Locke.

Formal; precise; affectedly neat or nice; as, prim regularity; a prim person. Swift.

In a prim or precise manner.

The quality or state of being prim; affected formality or niceness; preciseness; stiffness.

the best proportions of her sex. Sir W. Scott. Documents are authentic and facts are true precisely in proportion to the support which they afford to his theory. Macaulay.

Like a prude; very formal, precise, or reserved; affectedly severe in virtue; as, a prudish woman; prudish manners. A formal lecture, spoke with prudish face. Garrick.

punctilio; very nice or exact in the forms of behavior, etiquette, or mutual intercourse; precise; exact in the smallest particulars. "A punctilious observance of divine laws." Rogers. "Very punctilious copies of any letters. The Nation. Punctilious in the simple and intelligible instances of common life. I. Taylor. --…

Observant of nice points; punctilious; precise. Punctual to tediousness in all that he relates. Bp. Burnet. So much on punctual niceties they stand. C. Pitt.

Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid; -- often used by way of reproach or contempt. Paritanical circles, from which plays and novels were strictly excluded. Macaulay. He had all the puritanic traits, both good and evil. Hawthorne.

ds an action, on account of considerations of conscience or expedience. We are often over-precise, scrupling to say or do those things which lawfully we may. Fuller. Men scruple at the lawfulness of a set form of divine worship. South.

Precisely the same; the very same; identical. His servant was healed in the selfsame hour. Matt. viii. 13.

Precisely; exactly; as, we shall start at ten o'clock sharp. [Colloq.] Look sharp, attend; be alert. [Colloq.]

Fig.: Soft; delicate; tender; smooth; as, silken language. "Silken terms precise." Shak.

Exactly corresponding; resembling in all respects; precisely like.