All 5 Uses of
precise
in
Ulysses, by James Joyce
- He scratched imprecisely with his right hand, though insensible of prurition, various points and surfaces of his partly exposed, wholly abluted skin.†
Chpt 17 *imprecisely = not exactly or accuratelystandard prefix: The prefix "im-" in imprecisely means not and reverses the meaning of precisely. This prefix is sometimes used before words beginning with "M" or "P" as seen in words like immoral, immature, and impossible.
- What is it precisely?†
Chpt 15
- My belief is, to tell you the candid truth, that those bits were genuine forgeries all of them put in by monks most probably or it's the big question of our national poet over again, who precisely wrote them like Hamlet and Bacon, as, you who know your Shakespeare infinitely better than I, of course I needn't tell you.†
Chpt 16
- A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours: quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when awaking after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with precision cut and humected and applied adhered: which was†
Chpt 17
- Why did he not elaborate these calculations to a more precise result?†
Chpt 17
Definitions:
-
(1)
(precise as in: about noon; 12:03 to be precise) exact (accurate)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. -
(2)
(precise as in: a precise personality) meticulous (careful about details) -- especially to do things properly