delicate

From Middle English delicat, from Latin dēlicātus (“giving pleasure, delightful, soft, luxurious, delicate, in Medieval Latin also fine, slender”), from dēlicia, usually in plural dēliciae (“pleasure, delight, luxury”), from dēliciō (“I allure, entice”), from dē- (“away”) + laciō (“I lure, I deceive”), from Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, pull”), of unknown ultimate origin. Compare delight, delicious and Spanish delgado (“thin, skinny”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛlɪkət/

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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.

   • 1850 April 18, Frederik W. Robertson, An Address Delivered to the Members of the Working Man's Institute‎, page 5:

     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.
   • 2021, “Silk in the Strings”, performed by Spiritbox:

     You crush a delicate moth wing
     I see the stain on your fingertips

   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

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     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.
   • 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

   • 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:

     They would give up ideas of gentle living, of soft raiment, and delicate feeding.

9. Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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

• (easily damaged): fragile

• indelicate

• delicacy
• delicately
• delicatessen
• delicious
• delight

• → Japanese: デリケート (derikēto)

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.
   • 1712, William King, The Art of Cookery, in Imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry:

     With Abstinence all Delicates he Sees, / And can regale himself with Toast and Cheese.

3. (obsolete) A delicate, luxurious, or effeminate person.
   • 1830, “The Barge's Crew”, in The Log Book; Or, Nautical Miscellany‎, page 341:

     A council of war was called, and the delicates met in the great cabin ; the platform was rigged up on the forecastle, the yard-rope rove, and the signal made for all boats to attend execution

   • 1603, Plutarch, translated by Philemon Holland, The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC:

     If Lucullus were not a waster and a delicate given to belly-cheare.

4. A moth, Mythimna vitellina

• “delicate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “delicate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• IPA^(key): /de.liˈka.te/
• Rhymes: -ate
• Hyphenation: de‧li‧cà‧te

delicate f pl

1. feminine plural of delicato

• dateceli

dēlicāte

1. vocative masculine singular of dēlicātus

• “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.

• IPA^(key): /deliˈkate/

delicate

1. feminine/neuter plural nominative/accusative of delicat