costly Hear it!

costly definition

costly (kôst′lē, käst′-)

adjective costlier -·lier, costliest -·li·est

    1. costing much; expensive; dear
    2. at the cost of great effort, damage, sacrifice, etc. a costly victory
  2. magnificent; sumptuous
  3. Archaic lavish; extravagant

Etymology: ME: see cost & -ly

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

costly Synonyms

costly

modif.

high-priced, expensive, precious; see expensive, harmful. See syn. study at expensive.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

costly Usage Examples

Modifying Another Word

  • prohibitively: By 1812 only one volume of Willan's Cutaneous Diseases had appeared as the colored engravings were proving prohibitively costly.

Infinitive complement

  • administer: Book prizes are the least costly to administer, because literary judges are the least well paid and work from home.

Modifies a noun

  • mistake: This is a costly mistake I have seen several clients fall foul of in recent times.

Used with adjective complement

  • prove: Just like last week's game, missed free throws proved costly in both halves of the match.

Preposition: in

  • term: But it will be costly in terms of time and money.
costly usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

Link to this page:

Cite this page:

MLA Style

"costly." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 5 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/costly>

APA Style

costly. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 5th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/costly

Comments:

Please or Register to post a comment