Delicate Meaning
/ˈdɛl.ɪ.kət/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjEasily damaged or requiring careful handling.
adjCharacterized by a fine structure or thin lines.
Sentence Examples
Indeed she is young and beautiful, but she is in delicate health.
The delicate, graceful flowers are in bloom.
He admired the delicate curve of her ear.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ flower petals fell off when I touched them.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Indeed she is young and beautiful, but she is in ____ health.
Word Origin & History
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).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"There are some things too delicate and too sacred to be handled rudely without injury to truth."
— 1850 April 18, Frederik W. Robertson, An Address Delivered to the Members of the Working Man's Institute, page 5:
"Indeed, the frosty god conspired with it for our delight; building crystal bridges, with tracery of lace delicater than Valenciennes, and spangled string-pieces, and fretted vaultings, whimsical sierras, stalactite and stalagmite."
— 1903, Julian Hawthorne, chapter II, in Hawthorne and His Circle, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 28:
"The final vote between Hollande and Sarkozy now depends on a delicate balance of how France's total of rightwing and leftwing voters line up."
— 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian:
"You crush a delicate moth wing
I see the stain on your fingertips"
— 2021, “Silk in the Strings”, performed by Spiritbox:
"Jill had, as you might say quite fallen in love with the Unicorn. She thought—and she wasn’t far wrong—that he was the shiningest, delicatest, most graceful animal she had ever met: and he was so gentle and soft of speech that, if you hadn’t known, you would hardly have believed how fierce and terrible he could be in battle."
— 1956, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “What News the Eagle Brought”, in The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia; 7), New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 82–83:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ flower petals fell off when I touched them.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Indeed she is young and beautiful, but she is in ____ health.