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The act of treating with abuse or disrespect, or with undue publicity, or lack of delicacy. 'T were profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love. Donne.

To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence. Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories. Dryden. But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! How the style refines! Pope.

Characterized by roughness; umpolished; raw; lacking delicacy or refinement; coarse. Such gardening tools as art, yet rude, . . . had formed. Milton.

he intellect and the will; peculiar susceptibility of impression, pleasurable or painful; delicacy of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy; as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility; -- often used in the plural. "Sensibilities so fine!" Cowper. The true lawgiver ought to h…

Juice; gravy; a seasoned dish; a delicacy. [Obs.] Gower. I will not tell of their strange sewes. Chaucer.

oöl.), a celebrated breed of shortwooled, hornless sheep, highly valued on account of the delicacy of their flesh. So called from the South Downs where the breed originated.

Nice discernment with delicacy of mental action; nicety of discrimination.

M. Hale. Tactile sense (Physiol.), the sense of touch, or pressure sense. See Touch. The delicacy of the tactile sense varies on different parts of the skin; it is geatest on the forehead, temples and back of the forearm. H. N. Martin.

Refinement; delicacy.

hich various dishes are cooked and served; esp., an earthenware jar containing some table delicacy and sold with its contents.

vited to drink; -- so called because toasts were formerly put into the liquor, as a great delicacy. It now came to the time of Mr. Jones to give a toast . . . who could not refrain from mentioning his dear Sophia. Fielding.

nia, having usually a smooth greenish or olive-colored shell. It is highly valued for the delicacy of its flesh, which is used especially for turtle soup. Two distinct species or varieties are known; one of which (Chelonia Midas) inhabits the warm part of the Atlantic Ocean, and sometimes weighs eight hundred pounds or…

A want of niceness; indelicacy; impropriety.

Not gentle; lacking good breeding or delicacy; harsh. Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind. Shak. That ungentle flavor which distinguishes nearly all our native and uncultivated grapes. Hawthorne. -- Un*gen"tle*ness, n. -- Un*gen"tly, adv.

young of several species of herrings, especially of the common herring, esteemed a great delicacy by epicures in England.