delicate
Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.
Adjective 4 meanings
Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.
“Those clothes are made from delicate lace.”
Characterized by a fine structure or thin lines.
“Her face was delicate.”
Intended for use with fragile items.
“Set the washing machine to the delicate cycle.”
Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; said of manners, conduct, or feelings.
“delicate behaviour”
Noun 2 meanings
A delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.
“Don't put that in with your jeans: it's a delicate!”
A moth of the species Mythimna vitellina.
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.
Similar and opposite words
DELICATE at a glance
DELICATE has 8 letters and scores 11 points in Scrabble (D 2 + E 1 + L 1 + I 1 + C 3 + A 1 + T 1 + E 1) and 13 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #6,894 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with delicate
All rhymesOne letter away
- DEDICATE12
- DELIBATE11
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