From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpunctiliouspunc‧til‧i‧ous /pʌŋkˈtɪliəs/ adjective formal CAREFULvery careful to behave correctly and follow rulespunctilious about Joe was always punctilious about repaying loans. —punctiliously adverb —punctiliousness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
punctilious• Careless in some situations, in others he proved punctilious.• He used words handsomely, though he may have been too careful with them, a little too punctilious.• Certainly, some of the claims they advanced were extreme even by the standards of so punctilious an age.• A punctilious attention to prayers and strict religious observance would win their indulgence.• He was a punctilious blighter and I can't see him using the Lab as a convenient place for a rendezvous.• No denying the boy was dutiful and punctilious in all things, however opinionated he might be.• Darwin was himself something of a gourmet, also punctilious in his insistence that ties were obligatory.• He had his team and he was too punctilious not to share his thinking with them.Origin punctilious (1600-1700) punctilio “detail of good behavior” ((16-21 centuries)), from Italian puntiglio, from Spanish puntillo, from Latin punctum; → POINT1 