perfectionist
perfectionist — noun
1. someone who cannot accept work, results, or behaviour that is less than flawless
someone who cannot accept work, results, or behaviour that is less than flawless, and who keeps trying to meet an extremely high personal standard of quality.
Jisoo is such a perfectionist that she rewrote her entire essay three times before handing it in.
such a perfectionist + that-clause for result
The bakery's owner, a known perfectionist, inspects every cake before it goes on display.
collocation: known perfectionist
Being a perfectionist can make teamwork hard when your standards are much higher than others'.
Élise's reputation as a perfectionist means that her boss trusts her to catch every error in the report.
A perfectionist may spend hours fixing tiny mistakes that nobody else would even notice.
- stickler
stresses strict insistence on rules or standards, often in a specific area such as punctuality or grammar
- purist
applies to someone who insists on the correct, traditional, or most authentic way of doing something
- fussbudget
informal and mildly negative; describes someone who worries excessively about small details
- slacker
informal; describes someone who avoids effort or responsibility, the opposite of the perfectionist's drive
- procrastinator
someone who delays tasks; perfectionists are sometimes procrastinators too, but the two traits are distinct
用法筆記
Often appears with modifiers such as 'known', 'self-confessed', or 'born', and in the pattern 'such a perfectionist (that)...'. Whether the word is a compliment or a mild criticism depends on the speaker's attitude. The related noun 'perfectionism' refers to the trait itself, not to the person.