DELICATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Delicate

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/dˈɛləkət/ Listen

Delicate

adjective

Exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury. "Delicate china" , "A delicate flavor" , "The delicate wing of a butterfly" Antonym: rugged.

Marked by great skill especially in meticulous technique.

Easily broken or damaged or destroyed. Synonyms: fragile, frail. "Fragile porcelain plates" , "Fragile old bones" , "A frail craft"

Easily hurt. Synonym: soft. "A baby's delicate skin"

Developed with extreme delicacy and subtlety. Synonym: finespun.

Difficult to handle; requiring great tact. Synonyms: ticklish, touchy. "Hesitates to be explicit on so ticklish a matter" , "A touchy subject"

Of an instrument or device; capable of registering minute differences or changes precisely.

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"Delicate" Quotes from Famous Books

... returned the captain, with some asperity, "you tell me that this woman has fair hair slightly grey, delicate features, pale complexion, brown eyes, and gentle manners, all of which ...

— The Young Trawler • R.M. Ballantyne

... a patronising way which galled me to the quick,—"do you derive from this source? That is, if you will kindly excuse my saying so? The proposal which you have done my daughter and myself the honour to suggest, necessitates my making such delicate inquiries, ...

— She and I, Volume 2 - A Love Story. A Life History. • John Conroy Hutcheson

... to make matters equal, as it were, there are some stage people so delicate that it is next door to impossible to ...

— Stage-Land • Jerome K. Jerome

... early August party," said her ladyship, rubbing her delicate little old nose with her pencil, "and Walderhurst is coming to me. It always amuses me to have Walderhurst. The moment a man like that comes into a room the women begin to frisk about and swim and languish, except those who try to get up interesting ...

— Emily Fox-Seton - Being The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... species is known in pharmacy as Chinese cassia or Chinese cinnamon (cassia cinnamon). Indeed it is very like the cinnamon of Ceylon, comes in curled quills, has the same odor and taste though not so delicate; but it is darker in color, with a surface less clean and smooth. Its chemical composition is identical with that of the latter and nowadays it forms an important article ...

— The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines • T. H. Pardo de Tavera

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