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A delicate expression, act, mode of treatment, distinction, or the like; a minute distinction. The fineness and niceties of words. Locke. To a nicety, with great exactness or accuracy.

A shade of difference; a delicate gradation.

e rudiment of a seed. It grows from a placenta, and consists of a soft nucleus within two delicate coatings. The attached base of the ovule is the hilum, the coatings are united with the nucleus at the chalaza, and their minute orifice is the foramen.

A name popularly given to the delicate morsel contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl. Fresh-water oyster (Zoöl.), any species of the genus Etheria, and allied genera, found in rivers of Africa and South America. They are irregular in form, and attach themselves to r…

Of the delicate purplish pink color likened to that of peach blooms; -- applied esp. to a Chinese porcelain, small specimens of which bring great prices in the Western countries.

edging to be sewed on lace. -- Pearl eye, cataract. [R.] -- Pearl gray, a very pale and delicate blue-gray color. -- Pearl millet, Egyptian millet (Penicillaria spicata). -- Pearl moss. See Carrageen. -- Pearl moth (Zoöl.), any moth of the genus Margaritia; -- so called on account of its pearly color. -- Pearl oy…

The work of the pencil or bruch; as, delicate penciling in a picture.

A delicate bar of cartilage connecting the dorsal and ventral extremities of the first pair of bronchial cartilages in the syrinx of birds.

tion in alkalies is brilliant red, but is decolorized by acids. This reaction, being very delicate, is used as an indicator.

kalies is brilliant red, but is decolorized by acids, and as this reaction is exceedingly delicate it is used as an indicator.

om the fiber of the pineapple leaf, and perhaps from other fibrous tropical leaves. It is delicate, soft, and transparent, with a slight tinge of pale yellow.

The delicate and highly vascular membrane immediately investing the brain and spinal cord.

To be sequeamish or delicate; hence, to act or talk triflingly or ineffectively; to twaddle; piddle. [Dial. or Slang]

om the fiber of the pineapple leaf, and perhaps from other fibrous tropical leaves. It is delicate, soft, and transparent, with a slight tinge of pale yellow.

A small plaque, esp., in modern medal engraving, a small and delicate bas-relief, whether cast or struck from a die, or of form other than circular.

ate careful study from nature, delicacy and minuteness of workmanship, and an exalted and delicate conception of the subject.

A division of fresh-water rhizopods including those that have a soft body and delicate branched pseudopodia. The genus Gromia is one of the best-known.

A kind of delicate confectionery or cake, perhaps made from the pulp of fruit. [Obs.] Nares.

Ornamented; decorated; esp., embroidered on the edges. Purfled work (Arch.), delicate tracery, especially in Gothic architecture.

Fastidious; squeamish; delicate; easily disturbed; unsettled; ticklish. " A queasy question." Shak. Some seek, when queasy conscience has its qualms. Cowper.