All 11 Uses of
precise
in
The Scarlet Letter
- From the loftiest point of its roof, during precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but with the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally, and thus indicating that a civil, and not a military, post of Uncle Sam's government is here established.
Chpt Intr.precisely = exactly
- It was the capital letter A. By an accurate measurement, each limb proved to be precisely three inches and a quarter in length.
Chpt Intr.
- The moment when a man's head drops off is seldom or never, I am inclined to think, precisely the most agreeable of his life.
Chpt Intr.
- Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came swarming back upon her, intermingled with recollections of whatever was gravest in her subsequent life; one picture precisely as vivid as another; as if all were of similar importance, or all alike a play.
Chpt 2
- He was not ill-fitted to be the head and representative of a community which owed its origin and progress, and its present state of development, not to the impulses of youth, but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined and hoped so little.
Chpt 3
- He presented the cup to Hester, who received it with a slow, earnest look into his face; not precisely a look of fear, yet full of doubt and questioning as to what his purposes might be.
Chpt 4
- The child had a native grace which does not invariably co-exist with faultless beauty; its attire, however simple, always impressed the beholder as if it were the very garb that precisely became it best.
Chpt 6
- It was not, indeed, precisely that which he had laid out for himself to tread.
Chpt 11
- Attiring himself with as much care as if it had been for public worship, and precisely in the same manner, he stole softly down the staircase, undid the door, and issued forth.
Chpt 11
- Hester Prynne did not now occupy precisely the same position in which we beheld her during the earlier periods of her ignominy.
Chpt 13
- The minister had inquired of Hester, with no little interest, the precise time at which the vessel might be expected to depart.
Chpt 20 *precise = exact
Definition:
-
(precise as in: about noon; 12:03 to be precise) exact (accurate)editor's notes: In the fields of science, engineering, and statistics, precise and accurate are not properly used as synonyms the way they are in general usage.
If you throw darts at a dartboard and keep missing the bullseye, but hit in the same place on the dartboard each time, you would be described as precise, but not accurate.
If you seldom hit the bullseye, but tended to get close each time, you would be described as accurate, but not precise.
Finally, if you hit the bullseye each time, you would be considered both accurate and precise.