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adj. 1. Showing or acting with careful attention to detail: a fastidious scholar; fastidious research. 2. Difficult to please; exacting: "The club is also becoming far more fastidious about what constitutes a breed standard" (Janet Burroway). 3. Excessively scrupulous or sensitive, as in taste, propriety, or neatness: "He was a fastidious man who hated to dirty his hands, in particular with food" (Michael Chabon). See Synonyms at meticulous. 4. Microbiology Having complex nutritional requirements. [Middle English, squeamish, particular, haughty, from Old French fastidieux, from Latin fastīdiōsus, from fastīdium, squeamishness, haughtiness, probably from fastus, disdain.] fas·tidi·ous·ly adv. fas·tidi·ous·ness n. |
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