Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Showing or acting with careful attention to detail.
- adjective Difficult to please; exacting.
- adjective Excessively scrupulous or sensitive, as in taste, propriety, or neatness: synonym: meticulous.
- adjective Microbiology Having complex nutritional requirements.
from The Century Dictionary.
- 1. Such as to cause disgust or loathing; loathsome.
- Hard or difficult to please; squeamish; over-nice in selecting or discriminating; difficult to suit: as, a fastidious mind or taste.
- Synonyms Nice, Dainty, etc. See
nice .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Difficult to please; delicate to a fault; suited with difficulty; squeamish
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Excessively
particular ,demanding , orfussy about details, especially abouttidiness andcleanliness . - adjective
Difficult toplease ;quick to findfault .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having complicated nutritional requirements; especially growing only in special artificial cultures
- adjective giving careful attention to detail; hard to please; excessively concerned with cleanliness
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word fastidious.
Examples
-
He stopped to wait for the prisoners to pass, his expression fastidious and filled with contempt.
The Falcons of Montabard Chadwick, Elizabeth 2004
-
Ward had certain fastidious instincts, and he rebelled inwardly at eating, sleeping, and cooking all in one small room.
-
His palate is tender, and, in one sense, might be called fastidious; nothing is more sensitive or more easily shocked.
Penrod and Sam Booth Tarkington 1907
-
Aware of their importance to herself, she carefully cherished, but never made them subjects of conversation, nor gave the world an opportunity of censuring what they would have termed her fastidious notions; her religious opinions were never obtruded upon slight acquaintance, and it was only her more particular friends who, beside her family, could form any judgment of her principles, save from her moral conduct.
Yamboo; or, the North American Slave Anonymous 1812
-
They are called fastidious and I think their problems have something to do with ASD.
-
And they'd be especially outraged because the cops hadn't treated me with the kind of fastidious, hands-off politeness that they'd never expect from a retail clerk.
-
In the courtyard I saw a little cart, with iron brakes underneath it, such as fastidious people use to deaden the jolting of the road; but few men under a lord or baronet would be so particular.
Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004
-
Knight had already indicated a correlation of the need of micro-organisms for "growth-factors" with failure of synthesis, and correlated this failure with evolution, particularly in relation to the complex environment of "fastidious" pathogenic micro-organisms.
-
Ramsey was already dangerously distended, as an effect of the earlier part of her discourse, and the word "fastidious" almost exploded him; but upon the climax, "Dora Yocum," he blew up with a shattering report and, leaving fragments of incoherence ricocheting behind him, fled shuddering from the house.
Ramsey Milholland Booth Tarkington 1907
-
In the courtyard I saw a little cart, with iron brakes underneath it, such as fastidious people use to deaden the jolting of the road; but few men under a lord or baronet would be so particular.
fbharjo commented on the word fastidious
slowidious
February 2, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word fastidious
Fastidioso means irritating; fastidious is pignolo.
He's so fastidious, I'd stab him just to let him die for the blood stains on the floor.
March 24, 2009
eyang commented on the word fastidious
I can be a quite a fastidious director.
June 14, 2010
VerbalElation commented on the word fastidious
Having high and often capricious standards : difficult to please. Excessively particular, critical, or demanding. Overly concerned about cleanliness
February 20, 2013