Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Pleasing to the senses, especially in a subtle way.
- adjective Easily broken or damaged.
- adjective Exquisitely fine or dainty: synonym: exquisite.
- adjective Frail in constitution or health.
- adjective Marked by sensitivity of discrimination.
- adjective Very subtle in difference or distinction.
- adjective Having or showing great consideration or care.
- adjective Requiring careful or tactful treatment.
- adjective Fine or soft in touch or skill.
- adjective Measuring, indicating, or responding to very small changes; precise.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pleasing to any of the senses, especially to the sense of taste; dainty; delicious: opposed to coarse or rough.
- Agreeable; delightful; charming.
- Fine in characteristic details; minutely perfect in kind; exquisite in form, proportions, finish, texture, manner, or the like; nice; dainty; charming: as, a delicate being; a delicate skin or fabric; delicate tints.
- Of a fine or refined constitution; refined.
- Nice in construction or operation; exquisitely adjusted or adapted; minutely accurate or suitable: as, a delicate piece of mechanism; a delicate balance or spring.
- Requiring nicety in action; to be approached or performed with caution; precarious; ticklish: as, a delicate surgical operation; a delicate topic of conversation.
- Nice in perception or action; exquisitely acute or dexterous; finely sensitive or exact; deft: as, a delicate touch; a delicate performer or performance.
- Nice in forms; regulated by minute observance of propriety, or by attention to the opinions and feelings of others; refined: as, delicate behavior or manners; a delicate address.
- Susceptible to disease or injury; of a tender constitution; feeble; not able to endure hardship: as, a delicate frame or constitution; delicate health.
- Nice in perception of what is agreeable to the senses or the intellect; peculiarly sensitive to beauty, harmony, or their opposites; dainty; fastidious: as, a delicate taste; a delicate eye for color.
- Full of pleasure; luxurious; sumptuous; delightful.
- Synonyms Pleasant, delicious, palatable, savory. Fastidious, discriminating. Sensitive.
- noun Something savory, luscious, or delicious; a delicacy; a dainty.
- noun A fastidious person.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective rare Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring.
- adjective Pleasing to the senses; refinedly agreeable; hence, adapted to please a nice or cultivated taste; nice; fine; elegant
- adjective Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful.”
- adjective Fine or slender; minute; not coarse; -- said of a thread, or the like.
- adjective Slight or smooth; light and yielding; -- said of texture.
- adjective Soft and fair; -- said of the skin or a surface
- adjective Light, or softly tinted; -- said of a color.
- adjective Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; -- said of manners, conduct, or feelings
- adjective Tender; not able to endure hardship; feeble; frail; effeminate; -- said of constitution, health, etc.
- adjective Requiring careful handling; not to be rudely or hastily dealt with; nice; critical.
- adjective Of exacting tastes and habits; dainty; fastidious.
- adjective Nicely discriminating or perceptive; refinedly critical; sensitive; exquisite
- adjective Affected by slight causes; showing slight changes.
- noun rare A choice dainty; a delicacy.
- noun A delicate, luxurious, or effeminate person.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Easily
damaged or requiring careful handling. - adjective Characterized by a
fine structure orthin lines. - adjective
Intended for use withfragile items. - adjective Of
weak health , easilysick . - adjective informal
Unwell , especially because of having drunk too muchalcohol . - noun A delicate item of clothing, especially
underwear orlingerie . - noun obsolete A
choice dainty ; adelicacy . - noun obsolete A delicate,
luxurious , oreffeminate person.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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All fine colouring, like fine drawing, is _delicate_; and so delicate that if, at last, you
The Crown of Wild Olive also Munera Pulveris; Pre-Raphaelitism; Aratra Pentelici; The Ethics of the Dust; Fiction, Fair and Foul; The Elements of Drawing John Ruskin 1859
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It's interesting to note Fisher's use of the term "delicate balance" in reference to Tennessee Williams.
George Heymont: This Is Your Life George Heymont 2012
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That is what I call a delicate attention, dear master, and I thank you very much for it.
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The General prides himself on what he calls delicate irony.
The Citizen-Soldier or, Memoirs of a Volunteer John Beatty
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French have a high value for them; and I confess, they are often what they call delicate, when they are introduced with judgment; but Chaucer writ with more simplicity, and followed nature more closely, than to use them.
English literary criticism Various
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That is what I call a delicate attention, dear master, and I thank you very much for it.
The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Sand, George, 1804-1876 1921
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It need not be, it ought not, I think, to be, a book specifically on what one calls delicate questions, that would be throwing them up in just the way one does not want them thrown up; it should be a sort of rationalized and not too technical handbook of physiological instruction in the College Library -- or at home.
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It need not be, it ought not, I think, to be, a book specifically on what one calls delicate questions, that would be throwing them up in just the way one does not want them thrown up; it should be a sort of rationalized and not too technical handbook of physiological instruction in the College
Mankind in the Making Herbert George 1903
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That is what I call a delicate attention, dear master, and I thank you very much for it.
The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1850
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The Air France statement says further work is necessary on what it calls the "delicate issue of human-machine interface."
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