delicate

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Easily broken or damaged, and needing careful handling.

   These delicate glasses must be washed by hand.

2. 2
   adj

   Fine and graceful in structure or appearance.

   She has delicate features and a gentle smile.

3. 3
   adj

   Needing careful and sensitive handling.

   Talking about money can be a delicate matter.

4. 4
   adj

   Weak in health and easily becoming ill.

   The delicate child caught every cold that went around.

Common collocations

• delicate flavor Adjective + noun

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. Compare delight, delicious and Spanish delgado (“thin, skinny”). The noun is from a substantivization of the adjective (see -ate).

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images