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To render dainty, delicate, or fastidious. "Daintified emotion." Sat. rev.

That which is delicious or delicate; a delicacy. That precious nectar may the taste renew Of Eden's dainties, by our parents lost. Beau. & Fl.

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.

A burden in popular songs. [Obs.] Delicate burthens of dildos and fadings. Shak.

Softly; sweetly; with soft, smooth, and delicate execution.

rd or expression admitting of a double interpretation, one of which is often obscure or indelicate.

Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or the want of a delicate contour in form, and of easy transition in coloring. Dry area (Arch.), a small open space reserved outside the foundation of a building to guard it from damp. -- Dry blow. (a) (Med.) A blow which inflicts no wound, and causes no effusion of…

Having some characteristic of a woman, as delicacy, luxuriousness, etc.; soft or delicate to an unmanly degree; womanish; weak. The king, by his voluptuous life and mean marriage, became effeminate, and less sensible of honor. Bacon. An effeminate and unmanly foppery. Bp. Hurd.

In an effeminate or womanish manner; weakly; softly; delicately. "Proud and effeminately gay." Fawkes.

The delicate bands of connective tissue interspersed among muscular fibers.

The delicate bands of connective tissue among nerve fibers.

ats, to the exhalations of the flowers. It is used for plants whose volatile oils are too delicate to be separated by distillation.

Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio. [Obs.] "A work of rich entail." Spenser.

A genus of Bryozoa which produce delicate corals, often incrusting like lichens, but sometimes branched.

A figure in which a harts or indelicate word or expression is softened; a way of describing an offensive thing by an inoffensive expression; a mild name for something disagreeable.

To express by a euphemism, or in delicate language; to make use of euphemistic expressions.

Of delicate perception or close and accurate discrimination; not easy to satisfy; exact; nice; fastidious; as, exquisite judgment, taste, or discernment. His books of Oriental languages, wherein he was exquisite. Fuller.

uropean fresh-water phyllopod crustacean (Chirocephalus diaphanus); -- so called from its delicate colors, transparency, and graceful motions. The name is sometimes applied to similar American species. -- Fairy stone (Paleon.), an echinite.

Difficult to please; delicate to fault; suited with difficulty; squeamish; as, a fastidious mind or ear; a fastidious appetite. Proud youth ! fastidious of the lower world. Young.

spores arranged without order and covered with a thin gelatinous envelope, as in certain delicate red algæ.