Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Greatly pleasing to the taste; delicious. synonym: delicious.
  • adjective Greatly pleasing; delightful.
  • adjective Sexually attractive or alluring.
  • noun Something delightful or delicious.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Delightful, especially to any of the senses; highly pleasing; charming; affording great enjoyment or pleasure: as, “delectable bowers,”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Highly pleasing; delightful.
  • adjective extremely pleasing to the sense of taste; same as luscious, 1.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pleasing to the taste; delicious.
  • noun Something fitting the above description.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective extremely pleasing to the sense of taste
  • adjective capable of arousing desire

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dēlectābilis, from dēlectāre, to please; see delight.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin delectare ("to delight").

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Examples

  • Swift half visions of her loveliness – of certain delectable details of her face or figure flitted always before him.

    The Miller of Old Church 1911

  • Well may that land be called delectable and a fructuous land, that was be-bled and moisted with the precious blood of our

    The Travels of Sir John Mandeville 2004

  • At any rate it pleased us to recall the delectable lines:

    Without Prejudice Israel Zangwill 1895

  • I'm torn between trying to do an Iain Dale style "locked in contemplation" pic or a Kerron Cross style "delectable" pic.

    The Webb Log - Looks Familiar Kerron Cross 2007

  • She did not know what "delectable" meant, but it sounded good; and mountains, though she had never seen more of them than a far blue line, had always pleased her fancy.

    The Path of the King John Buchan 1907

  • It was a "delectable" country -- yes, that was the meaning of the word that had puzzled her ....

    The Path of the King John Buchan 1907

  • Thus Carey sought to turn to Christ the twelve millions of Hindoos who, from Western India above and below the great coast-range known as the Sahyadri or "delectable" mountains, had nearly wrested the whole peninsula from the Mohammedans, and had almost anticipated the life-giving rule of the British, first at Panipat and then as Assye.

    Life of William Carey George Smith 1876

  • These simple-to-prepare recipes for the kind of delectable dishes people crave but feel they can't eat when trying to be healthy and trim, actually can be the basis of a personal weight-loss plan.

    WN.com - Articles related to 6 bad eating habits your mother taught you 2010

  • These simple-to-prepare recipes for the kind of delectable dishes people crave but feel they can't eat when trying to be healthy and trim, actually can be the basis of a personal weight-loss plan.

    WN.com - Articles related to 6 bad eating habits your mother taught you 2010

  • These simple-to-prepare recipes for the kind of delectable dishes people crave but feel they can't eat when trying to be healthy and trim, actually can be the basis of

    WN.com - Articles related to 6 bad eating habits your mother taught you 2010

Comments

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  • dELectabLE

    April 26, 2008