Adjacent Words

Delicacy definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DELICACY, n. In a general sense, that which delights or pleases. Hence,
1. Fineness of texture; smoothness; softness; tenderness; as the delicacy of the skin; and nearly in the same sense, applicable to food; as the delicacy of flesh, meat or vegetables. Hence,
2. Daintiness; pleasantness to the taste.
3. Elegant or feminine beauty; as delicacy of form.
4. Nicety; minute accuracy; as the delicacy of coloring in painting.
5. Neatness in dress; elegance proceeding from a nice selection and adjustment of the several parts of dress.
6. Softness of manners; civility or politemess proceeding from a nice observance of propriety, and a desire to please; as delicacy of behavior.
7. Indulgence; gentle treatment; as delicacy of education.
8. Tenderness; scrupulousness; the quality manifested in nice attention to right, and care to avoid wrong, or offense.
9. Acute or nice perception of what is pleasing to the sense of tasting; hence figuratively, a nice perception of beauty and deformity, or the faculty of such nice perception.
Delicacy of taste tends to invigorate the social affections, and moderate those that are selfish.
10. That which delights the senses, particularly the taste; applied to eatables; as, the peach is a great delicacy.
11. Tenderness of constitution; weakness; that quality or state of the animal body which renders it very impressible to injury; as delicacy of constitution or frame.
12. Smallness; fineness; slenderness; tenuity; as the delicacy of a thread, or fiber.
13. Tenderness; nice susceptibility of impression; as delicacy of feeling.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the quality of being beautiful and delicate in appearance; "the daintiness of her touch"; "the fineness of her features" [syn: daintiness, delicacy, fineness]
2: something considered choice to eat [syn: dainty, delicacy, goody, kickshaw, treat]
3: refined taste; tact [syn: delicacy, discretion]
4: smallness of stature [syn: delicacy, slightness]
5: lack of physical strength [syn: fragility, delicacy]
6: subtly skillful handling of a situation [syn: delicacy, diplomacy, discreetness, finesse]
7: lightness in movement or manner [syn: airiness, delicacy]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -cies) Date: 14th century 1. obsolete a. the quality or state of being luxurious b. indulgence 2. something pleasing to eat that is considered rare or luxurious <considered caviar a delicacy> 3. a. the quality or state of being dainty ; fineness <lace of great delicacy> b. frailty 1 <the delicacy of his health> 4. fineness or subtle expressiveness of touch (as in painting or music) 5. a. precise and refined perception and discrimination b. extreme sensitivity ; precision <an electronic instrument of great delicacy> 6. a. refined sensibility in feeling or conduct b. the quality or state of being squeamish 7. the quality or state of requiring delicate handling

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 (esp. in craftsmanship or artistic or natural beauty) fineness or intricacy of structure or texture; gracefulness. 2 susceptibility to injury or disease; weakness. 3 the quality of requiring discretion or sensitivity (a situation of some delicacy). 4 a choice or expensive food. 5 a consideration for the feelings of others. b avoidance of immodesty or vulgarity. 6 (esp. in a person, a sense, or an instrument) accuracy of perception; sensitiveness. Etymology: ME f. DELICATE + -ACY

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Delicacy Del"i*ca*cy, n.; pl. Delicacies. [From Delicate, a.] 1. The state or condition of being delicate; agreeableness to the senses; delightfulness; as, delicacy of flavor, of odor, and the like. What choice to choose for delicacy best. --Milton. 2. 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. 3. 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. You know your mother's delicacy in this point. --Cowper. 4. Addiction to pleasure; luxury; daintiness; indulgence; luxurious or voluptuous treatment. And to those dainty limbs which Nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy? --Milton. 5. Nice and refined perception and discrimination; critical niceness; fastidious accuracy. That Augustan delicacy of taste which is the boast of the great public schools of England. --Macaulay. 6. The state of being affected by slight causes; sensitiveness; as, the delicacy of a chemist's balance. 7. 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. The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. --Rev. xviii. 3. 8. Pleasure; gratification; delight. [Obs.] He Rome brent for his delicacie. --Chaucer. Syn: See Dainty.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(delicacies) 1. Delicacy is the quality of being easy to break or harm, and refers especially to people or things that are attractive or graceful. ...the delicacy of a rose. 2. If you say that a situation or problem is of some delicacy, you mean that it is difficult to handle and needs careful and sensitive treatment. There is a matter of some delicacy which I would like to discuss... N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp 3. If someone handles a difficult situation with delicacy, they handle it very carefully, making sure that nobody is offended. Both countries are behaving with rare delicacy... = sensitivity N-UNCOUNT: oft with N 4. A delicacy is a rare or expensive food that is considered especially nice to eat. Smoked salmon was considered an expensive delicacy... N-COUNT

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

del'-i-ka-si (to strenos): Found only in Re 18:3, King James Version: "The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies." the Revised Version (British and American) has very properly changed delicacies to "wantonness," and "luxury" in the margin, which is much nearer to the original.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Pleasantness, agreeableness, deliciousness, daintiness, savoriness, relish. 2. Dainty, tidbit, titbit. 3. Fineness, softness, smoothness, tenderness, lightness, nicety, niceness, elegance. 4. Slightness, slenderness, weakness, frailty, tenderness. 5. Carefulness, scrupulousness, fastidiousness, daintiness, discrimination, tact, nice perception. 6. Refinement, purity, sensibility, fine feeling.

Moby Thesaurus

absoluteness, accommodatingness, accuracy, acquired taste, affectivity, agreeableness, airiness, airy texture, allergy, ambrosia, amiable weakness, anaphylaxis, appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciation of excellence, appreciativeness, artistic judgment, ascent, attention to detail, attention to fact, attentiveness, attenuation, banquet, beauty, bonne bouche, breakability, breakableness, brittleness, bubbliness, buoyancy, cachexia, cachexy, care for truth, cate, chanciness, changeableness, choice morsel, choiceness, chronic ill health, circumstantiality, civilized taste, civilizedness, collapse, complaisance, concern, connoisseurship, conscientiousness, considerateness, consideration, correctness, cosseting, crackability, crackableness, crispness, critical niceness, criticality, criticalness, crumbliness, crushability, crushableness, cultivated taste, cultivation, culture, cunningness, cuteness, daintiness, dainty, debilitation, debility, decency, decorousness, decorum, decrepitude, delicate distinction, delicate health, delicateness, dessert, destructibility, detail, diaphanousness, differentia, differential, difficulty, dilutedness, dilution, diminutiveness, discriminating taste, discriminatingness, discrimination, discriminativeness, disintegration, distinction, doubtfulness, down, downiness, dubiousness, easiness, effeminacy, elegance, empathy, enervation, ethereality, exactingness, exactitude, exactness, excellence, exhaustion, exiguity, exiguousness, exility, exquisiteness, faithfulness, fastidiousness, faultlessness, feast, featheriness, feebleness, feel, feeling, fewness, fidelity, filminess, fine palate, fine point, fine-grainedness, fineness, finesse, finicality, finicalness, finickiness, finickingness, fissility, flawlessness, flimsiness, floatability, flossiness, fluff, fluffiness, foaminess, fondness, fracturableness, fragility, frailness, frailty, frangibility, friability, frothiness, fussiness, fuzz, fuzziness, gauziness, gentleness, good taste, goody, gossameriness, grace, gracefulness, gracility, graciosity, graciousness, hairline, hazardousness, healthlessness, heedfulness, helpfulness, human frailty, hyperesthesia, hyperpathia, hypersensitivity, hypochondria, hypochondriasis, identification, ill health, impressionability, inconsequentiality, inconsiderableness, indecisiveness, indulgence, infirmity, infirmity of will, inherent vice, insecurity, insignificance, insolidity, instability, insubstantiality, insufficiency, invalidism, invalidity, irresolution, irritability, judiciousness, laciness, lack of weight, languishing, languishment, leniency, levitation, levity, lightness, literalism, literality, literalness, littleness, luxury, making distinctions, manna, margin, mathematical precision, meagerness, meanness, mellowness, meticulousness, mindfulness, minuteness, mistiness, moderateness, modesty, moral weakness, morbidezza, morbidity, morbidness, morsel, narrow margin, nectar, nervousness, nice distinction, niceness, niceness of distinction, nicety, nonresistiveness, nonrigidity, nuance, obligingness, oversensibility, oversensitiveness, overtenderness, palate, paperiness, particle of difference, particularity, particularness, passibility, peach fuzz, peakedness, perceptiveness, perceptivity, perfection, perilousness, pettiness, photophobia, picayunishness, plushiness, point of difference, polish, poor health, precariousness, preciseness, precisianism, precision, prickliness, propriety, pubescence, pudency, pudicity, pulpiness, punctiliousness, punctuality, puniness, quality, rarity, refined discrimination, refined palate, refinement, regale, regard, regardfulness, responsiveness, right, rightness, rigidity, rigidness, rigor, rigorousness, riskiness, satin, satininess, savory, scantiness, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, seemliness, selectiveness, sense, sensibility, sensitiveness, sensitivity, sensitization, severity, shade of difference, shakiness, shame, sickliness, silk, silkiness, sleaziness, slenderness, slightness, slimness, slipperiness, smallness, smoothness, softheartedness, softness, solicitousness, solicitude, sophistication, soreness, sponginess, strictness, subtility, subtle distinction, subtlety, supersensitivity, susceptibility, sweetmeat, sword of Damocles, tact, tactfulness, taste, tastefulness, tender feeling, tenderheartedness, tenderness, tenuity, tetchiness, textualism, the letter, thin skin, thinness, thought, thoughtfulness, ticklish business, ticklishness, tidbit, tininess, titbit, toleration, totteriness, touchiness, treat, triviality, uncertainty, undependability, unhealthiness, unheaviness, unimportance, unpredictability, unreliability, unsafeness, unsolidity, unsoundness, unsteadiness, unsubstantiality, unsureness, untrustworthiness, unwholesomeness, vagueness, valetudinarianism, velleity, velvet, velvetiness, volatility, vulnerability, warm heart, warmheartedness, wasting, wateriness, weakliness, weakness, weightlessness, wide margin, wispiness, womanishness, yeastiness