Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of 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}.