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''fastidious'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250713211208-00-⌔

fastidious - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

fastidious (comparative more fastidious, superlative most fastidious)

  • Excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness.
    • ✤ Synonyms: exacting, fussy, meticulous, niggly, pernickety; see also Thesaurus: fastidious
    • ✤ He had at first tried to clean up as they ate, his fastidious nature kicking in, but Chris had told him to just stop, he was blocking the TV.1
    • ✤ As she cleaned the room daily, she knew it was against his fastidious nature to bring or have food in his room.2
    • ✤ His fastidious nature had been evident in his careful snipping of a customer’s hair and now he guided his pencil with the same adroitness.3
  • Overly concerned about tidiness and cleanliness.
    • ✤ “If you are fastidious, clean previously used pots inside and out; if not, merely clean the outside (unless you are battling a pest infestation; then the inside will need scrubbing as well).”4
  • Difficult to please; quick to find fault.
    • ✤ You’re too fastidious, and too indolent, and too rich.5
    • ✤ “It’s burn[t], M’sieur,” said Marie Louise, politely, but decidedly, to the utter confusion of Mr. Billy, who was as mortified as could be at the failure of his dinner to please his fastidious little visitor.6
  • (microbiology, of a microorganism) Having precise requirements for nutrition and environment (chemical and physical); especially, being difficult to culture because of those requirements.
    • ✤ * fastidious organism*
    • ✤ * fastidious species*

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fastīdiōsus (“passive: that feels disgust, disdainful, scornful, fastidious; active: that causes disgust, disgusting, loathsome”), from fastīdium (“a loathing, aversion, disgust, niceness of taste, daintiness, etc.”), perhaps for ﹡ fastutidium, from fastus (“disdain, haughtiness, arrogance, disgust”) + taedium (“disgust”). Cf. French fastidieux.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /fæsˈtɪdi.əs/, /fəsˈtɪdi.əs/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɪdiəs
  • Hyphenation: fas‧ti‧di‧ous

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 2003, Lynsay Sands, Single White Vampire: ↩

  2. 2004, Maria Osborne Perr, Ravished Wings ‎: ↩

  3. 2008, Robert Fisher, Memory Road ‎: ↩

  4. 2010, Debra Lee Baldwin, Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care… ‎: ↩

  5. 1908, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (The Novels and Tales of Henry James), New York edition, volume, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC; republished as The Portrait of a Lady (EBook #283), United States: Project Gutenberg, 1 September 2001: ↩

  6. 1897, Kate Chopin, The Lilies: ↩

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