Delicacy
['delɪkəsɪ] or ['dɛləkəsi]
Definition
(noun.) subtly skillful handling of a situation.
(noun.) smallness of stature.
(noun.) refined taste; tact.
Editor: Tod--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) The state or condition of being delicate; agreeableness to the senses; delightfulness; as, delicacy of flavor, of odor, and the like.
(a.) Nicety or fineness of form, texture, or constitution; softness; elegance; smoothness; tenderness; and hence, frailty or weakness; as, the delicacy of a fiber or a thread; delicacy of a hand or of the human form; delicacy of the skin; delicacy of frame.
(a.) Nice propriety of manners or conduct; susceptibility or tenderness of feeling; refinement; fastidiousness; and hence, in an exaggerated sense, effeminacy; as, great delicacy of behavior; delicacy in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action.
(a.) Addiction to pleasure; luxury; daintiness; indulgence; luxurious or voluptuous treatment.
(a.) Nice and refined perception and discrimination; critical niceness; fastidious accuracy.
(a.) The state of being affected by slight causes; sensitiveness; as, the delicacy of a chemist's balance.
(a.) That which is alluring, delicate, or refined; a luxury or pleasure; something pleasant to the senses, especially to the sense of taste; a dainty; as, delicacies of the table.
(a.) Pleasure; gratification; delight.
Checked by Erwin
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Pleasantness, agreeableness, deliciousness, daintiness, savoriness, relish.[2]. Dainty, tidbit, titbit.[3]. Fineness, nicety, niceness, elegance.[4]. Tenderness, slenderness, weakness, frailty.[5]. Carefulness, scrupulousness, fastidiousness, daintiness, discrimination, tact, sensibility, nice perception.[6]. Refinement, purity.
Checker: Rene
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Nicety, dainty, mor, sel, refinement, tact, softness, luxury, modesty, scruple,sensitiveness, fragility
ANT:Coarseness, rudeness, rawness, muchness, indelicacy, commons, necessaries, fare,physic, vigor, robustness
Inputed by Bartholomew
Examples
- The whole family were quick, brisk, loud-talking, kind-hearted, and not troubled with much delicacy of perception. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Well, no, said Sir James; I feel a delicacy in appearing to dictate. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Well THAT is an odd kind of delicacy! Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- In this branch house of ours, Handel, we must have a-- I saw that his delicacy was avoiding the right word, so I said, A clerk. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Mr Wegg,' said Venus, 'in a case of so much delicacy, I must trouble you to say what you mean. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- But, I could not allow even him to dictate to me on a point of great delicacy, on which I feel very strongly. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- The good-natured Mrs. Moffat willingly did so, and had the delicacy not to make her a present of it immediately afterward. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- But, Cousin, consider that, if you destroy delicacy and a sense of shame in a young girl, you deprave her very faSt. Delicacy! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- This consisted of every rare delicacy, in and out of season. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- It requires a delicacy of feeling which they have not. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- Their delicacy is not to be shocked, or hurt easily. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- He had a woman's delicacy of feature, and was--as you may see, though you never saw her, said Herbert to me--exactly like his mother. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- There is no saying much for the delicacy of our good friends, the Eltons, was his next observation. Jane Austen. Emma.
- Isidore's homage was offered with great delicacy and respect. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Suppose I so repeated it to Mr Boffin, as to insinuate that my sensitive delicacy and honour--' 'Very good words, Sophronia. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- The rivers flowed with wine and milk: The oaks yielded honey; and nature spontaneously produced her greatest delicacies. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- I cannot enjoy delicacies; good things are wasted upon me. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- He had newts, snails, and frogs--the two latter delicacies are still highly esteemed in Normandy and Brittany. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Neither would you approve of the delicacies, as they are thought, of Athenian confectionary? Plato. The Republic.
Typed by Gilda