delicate
Forms
- Comparative
- more delicate
- Superlative
- most delicate
- Plural
- delicates
Definitions
1.Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.
- Those clothes are made from delicate lace.
- There are some things too delicate and too sacred to be handled rudely without injury to truth.
- 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.
- 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.
1.A moth of the species Mythimna vitellina.
2.A delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.
- Don't put that in with your jeans: it's a delicate!
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4707
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English delicat, from Latin dēlicātus (“giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate, (in Medieval Latin also) fine, slender”), from dēlicia + -ātus (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), usually in plural dēliciae (“pleasure, delight, luxury”), from dēliciō (“to allure, entice”), from dē- (“away”) + laciō (“to lure, to deceive”), from Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, pull”), of unknown ultimate origin.