delicate

Etymology

From Middle English delicat, from Latin delicatus (“giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate, in Medieval Latin also fine, slender”), from delicia, usually in plural deliciae (“pleasure, delight, luxury”), from delicere (“to allure”), from de (“away”) + lacere (“to allure, entice”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛlɪkət/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

delicate (comparative more delicate, superlative most delicate)

1. Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.

   Those clothes are made from delicate lace.

   The negotiations were very delicate.

   • F. W. Robertson

     There are some things too delicate and too sacred to be handled rudely without injury to truth.

   • 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian‎:

     The final vote between Hollande and Sarkozy now depends on a delicate balance of how France's total of rightwing and leftwing voters line up.

2. Characterized by a fine structure or thin lines.

   Her face was delicate.

   The spider wove a delicate web.

   There was a delicate pattern of frost on the window.

3. Intended for use with fragile items.

   Set the washing machine to the delicate cycle.

4. Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; said of manners, conduct, or feelings.

   delicate behaviour; delicate attentions; delicate thoughtfulness

5. Of weak health; easily sick; unable to endure hardship.

   a delicate child; delicate health

   • Shakespeare

     a delicate and tender prince

6. (informal) Unwell, especially because of having drunk too much alcohol.

   Please don't speak so loudly: I'm feeling a bit delicate this morning.

7. (obsolete) Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring.
   • 1360–1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman (C-text), passus IX, line 285:

     Þenk þat diues for hus delicat lyf to þe deuel wente.

   • circa 1660, John Evelyn (author), William Bray (editor), The Diary of John Evelyn, volume I of II (1901), entry for the 19th of August in 1641, page 29:

     Haerlem is a very delicate town and hath one of the fairest churches of the Gothic design I had ever seen.

8. Pleasing to the senses; refined; adapted to please an elegant or cultivated taste.

   a delicate dish; delicate flavour

9. Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful.
   • circa 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, act II, scene iii, lines 18 and 20–21:

     Cassio:   She’s a most exquisite lady.…Indeed, she’s a most fresh and delicate creature.

10. Light, or softly tinted; said of a colour.

    a delicate shade of blue

11. Of exacting tastes and habits; dainty; fastidious.
12. Highly discriminating or perceptive; refinedly critical; sensitive; exquisite.

    a delicate taste; a delicate ear for music

13. Affected by slight causes; showing slight changes.

    a delicate thermometer

Noun

delicate (plural delicates)

1. A delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.

   Don't put that in with your jeans: it's a delicate!

2. (obsolete) A choice dainty; a delicacy.

   With abstinence all delicates he sees. — Dryden.

3. (obsolete) A delicate, luxurious, or effeminate person.

   All the vessels, then, which our delicates have, — those I mean that would seem to be more fine in their houses than their neighbours, — are only of the Corinth metal. — Holland.

Further reading

• delicate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• delicate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Adjective

delicate f pl

1. Feminine plural of adjective delicato.

Anagrams

• dateceli

Adjective

dēlicāte

1. vocative masculine singular of dēlicātus

References

• delicate in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• delicate in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• delicate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /deliˈkate/

Adjective

delicate

1. feminine plural nominative form of delicat
2. feminine plural accusative form of delicat
3. neuter plural nominative form of delicat
4. neuter plural accusative form of delicat