Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of high price or value; expensive: costly jewelry.
- adj. Entailing loss or sacrifice: a costly war.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of great price; acquired, done, or practised at much cost, as of money, time, trouble, etc.; expensive; rich; occasioning great expense or expenditure: as, a costly habit; costly furniture; costly vices.
- Lavish; extravagant.
- Synonyms Precious, etc. See valuable.
- In a costly manner; expensively; richly; gorgeously.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
WordNet 3.0
- adj. entailing great loss or sacrifice
- adj. having a high price
Etymologies
- Composition: cost + -ly (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Mr. Obama is most eager to eliminate what he calls "costly tax cuts for oil companies.”
The Wall Street Journal: This Is No Time to Discourage U.S. Oil and Gas Production
“McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health care proposals that require too much government regulation.”
McCain Camp Declining To Comment On Cheney Assertion That Senator Apologized To Him
“McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health-care proposals that require too much government regulation.”
“The president's Republican foes in Congress, meanwhile, made a show of united opposition to the legislation, Obama's top domestic goal, and vowed to make every effort to derail what they called a costly and dangerous proposal.”
Yahoo! News: Latest news headlines News Headlines | Top Stories
“Congressional Republicans staged a show of unity against what they describe as costly and dangerous government intervention in US health care, marching into the House chamber for a closed-door strategy session.”
Yahoo! News: Latest news headlines News Headlines | Top Stories
“Coburn and other Republicans have long tried to strip out federal funds that Murtha earmarked for the center, which they call a costly boondoggle.”
“Fund says VW plans appear to favour Porsche owners * Wealth fund does not openly threaten to sell VW shares * Fund held $450 mln stake in VW at end 2008 By Wojciech Moskwa assets, which it called costly and "unacceptable.”
WN.com - Articles related to VT willow harvest promises cheap biomass fuel
“The Chicago Tribune reported on October 12, 2007 that McCain, in criticizing Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health care proposals that require too much government regulation, had said that Senator Clinton's health-care plan was”
“In America, access to medical care, though often costly, is everywhere.”
“We are forced to engage in costly altruistic behavior to fight against those who are being amply rewarded for their efforts.”
Public Transit and Public Choice, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘costly’.
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Words that look like adverbs but aren't
manly, womanly, ungainly, slovenly, homily, costly, dastardly, family, sparkly, wrinkly, oily, orderly and 69 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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What, another list?
ravishing, ravenous, pronk, brinksmanship, jaspe, mottle, chasm, testy, temperament, ponder, personally, phantom and 206 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for costly.
yarb To have devised
a Theory of Evolution, yet
to imagine we remain somehow outside
its sensible advance, has been our costly
luxury up till now...
- Peter Reading, The Con Men, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977 Jun 26, 2008