Adjacent Words

Dainty definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DA'INTY, a.
1. Nice; pleasing to the palate; of exquisite taste; delicious; as dainty food.
2. Delicate; of acute sensibility; nice in selecting what is tender and good; squeamish; soft; luxurious; as a dainty taste or palate; a dainty people.
3. Scrupulous in manners; ceremonious.
4. Elegant; tender; soft; pure; neat; effeminately beautiful; as dainty hands or limbs.
5. Nice; affectedly fine; as a dainty speaker.
DA'INTY, n.
1. Something nice and delicate to the taste; that which is exquisitely delicious; a delicacy.
Be not desirous of dainties, for they are
deceitful meat. Proverbs 23
2. A term of fondness.
Why, that's my dainty. Shak.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: affectedly dainty or refined [syn: dainty, mincing, niminy-piminy, prim, twee]
2: delicately beautiful; "a dainty teacup"; "an exquisite cameo" [syn: dainty, exquisite]
3: especially pleasing to the taste; "a dainty dish to set before a kind";
4: excessively fastidious and easily disgusted; "too nice about his food to take to camp cooking"; "so squeamish he would only touch the toilet handle with his elbow" [syn: dainty, nice, overnice, prissy, squeamish] n
1: something considered choice to eat [syn: dainty, delicacy, goody, kickshaw, treat]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural dainties) Etymology: Middle English deinte high esteem, delight, from Anglo-French deinté, from Latin dignitat-, dignitas dignity, worth Date: 14th century 1. a. something delicious to the taste b. something choice or pleasing 2. obsolete fastidiousness II. adjective (daintier; -est) Date: 14th century 1. a. tasting good ; tasty b. attractively prepared and served 2. marked by delicate or diminutive beauty, form, or grace <dainty teacups> 3. obsolete chary, reluctant 4. a. marked by fastidious discrimination or finicky taste b. showing avoidance of anything rough Synonyms: see choice • daintily adverb • daintiness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. (daintier, daintiest) 1 delicately pretty. 2 delicate of build or in movement. 3 (of food) choice. 4 fastidious; having delicate taste and sensibility. --n. (pl. -ies) a choice morsel; a delicacy. Derivatives: daintily adv. daintiness n. Etymology: AF dainté, OF daintié, deintié f. L dignitas -tatis f. dignus worthy

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dainty Dain"ty, a. [Compar. Daintier; superl. Daintiest.] 1. Rare; valuable; costly. [Obs.] Full many a deynt['e] horse had he in stable. --Chaucer. Note: Hence the proverb ``dainty maketh dearth,'' i. e., rarity makes a thing dear or precious. 2. Delicious to the palate; toothsome. Dainty bits Make rich the ribs. --Shak. 3. Nice; delicate; elegant, in form, manner, or breeding; well-formed; neat; tender. Those dainty limbs which nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy. --Milton. I would be the girdle. About her dainty, dainty waist. --Tennyson. 4. Requiring dainties. Hence: Overnice; hard to please; fastidious; squeamish; scrupulous; ceremonious. Thew were a fine and dainty people. --Bacon. And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away. --Shak. To make dainty, to assume or affect delicacy or fastidiousness. [Obs.] Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty, She, I'll swear, hath corns. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dainty Dain"ty, n.; pl. Dainties. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deinti['e] delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.] 1. Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [Obs.] I ne told no deyntee of her love. --Chaucer. 2. That which is delicious or delicate; a delicacy. That precious nectar may the taste renew Of Eden's dainties, by our parents lost. --Beau. & Fl. 3. A term of fondness. [Poetic] --B. Jonson. Syn: Dainty, Delicacy. Usage: These words are here compared as denoting articles of food. The term delicacy as applied to a nice article of any kind, and hence to articles of food which are particularly attractive. Dainty is stronger, and denotes some exquisite article of cookery. A hotel may be provided with all the delicacies of the season, and its table richly covered with dainties. These delicacies I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers, Walks and the melody of birds. --Milton. [A table] furnished plenteously with bread, And dainties, remnants of the last regale. --Cowper.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(daintier, daintiest) If you describe a movement, person, or object as dainty, you mean that they are small, delicate, and pretty. ...dainty pink flowers. ADJ • daintily She walked daintily down the steps. ADV: ADV with v, ADV adj

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Delicious, savory, nice, delicate, tender, palatable, luscious, toothsome. 2. Elegant, delicate, beautiful, neat, fine. 3. Fastidious, squeamish, scrupulous, overnice. II. n. Delicacy, tidbit, titbit, nice bit, choice morsel, delicate morsel.

Moby Thesaurus

acute, agreeable, airy, ambrosia, ambrosial, appetizing, attenuate, attenuated, beautiful, bleached, bonne bouche, bonny, breakable, bright, brittle, cate, cheap-jack, choice, choice morsel, civilized, clean, cleanly, cobwebby, comestible, comfit, crumbly, cultivated, cultured, cunning, cute, delectable, delicacy, delicat, delicate, delicately weak, delicious, delightful, dessert, diaphanous, dirt-free, discriminating, downy, easy, eatable, edible, effeminate, elegant, esculent, ethereal, exquisite, fair, fastidious, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, fine-grained, finespun, finical, finicking, finicky, flimsy, fluffy, fragile, frail, frangible, fresh, fussy, fuzzy, gauzy, genteel, gentle, gimcrack, gimcracky, good, good to eat, good-tasting, goody, gossamer, gossamery, graceful, gracile, gracious, gustable, gusty, immaculate, jerry, jerry-built, juicy, kickshaw, kosher, light, lightweight, likable, lovely, luscious, lush, manna, mignon, mincing, morsel, namby-pamby, neat, nectar, nectareous, nectarous, nice, nonpolluted, of cleanly habits, of gourmet quality, overrefined, palatable, papery, particular, pasteboardy, perceptive, pernickety, persnickety, pleasing, polished, pretty, pubescent, puny, pure, rare, rarefied, recherche, refined, ritually pure, sapid, satin, satiny, savorous, savory, scrumptious, select, sensitive, shattery, shiny, silky, sissified, sleazy, slight, smooth, smut-free, smutless, soft, sophisticated, spotless, squeamish, stainless, subtile, subtle, succulent, superior, sweet, sweetmeat, tacky, tahar, tasty, tender, tenuous, thin, thin-spun, tidbit, titbit, toothsome, treat, tubbed, unadulterated, unbesmirched, unblemished, unblotted, undefiled, unmuddied, unpolluted, unsmirched, unsmudged, unsoiled, unspotted, unstained, unsubstantial, unsullied, untainted, untarnished, velutinous, velvety, well-scrubbed, well-washed, white, whitened, wiredrawn, wispy, womanish, yummy