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Dainty   /dˈeɪnti/   Listen
adjective
Dainty  adj.  (compar. daintier; superl. daintiest)  
1.
Rare; valuable; costly. (Obs.) "Full many a deynté horse had he in stable." Note: Hence the proverb "dainty maketh dearth," i. e., rarity makes a thing dear or precious.
2.
Delicious to the palate; toothsome. "Dainty bits Make rich the ribs."
3.
Nice; delicate; elegant, in form, manner, or breeding; well-formed; neat; tender. "Those dainty limbs which nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy." "I would be the girdle. About her dainty, dainty waist."
4.
Requiring dainties. Hence: Overnice; hard to please; fastidious; squeamish; scrupulous; ceremonious. "Thew were a fine and dainty people." "And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away."
To make dainty, to assume or affect delicacy or fastidiousness. (Obs.) "Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty, She, I'll swear, hath corns."



noun
Dainty  n.  (pl. dainties)  
1.
Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. (Obs.) "I ne told no deyntee of her love."
2.
That which is delicious or delicate; a delicacy. "That precious nectar may the taste renew Of Eden's dainties, by our parents lost."
3.
A term of fondness. (Poetic)
Synonyms: Dainty, Delicacy. These words are here compared as denoting articles of food. The term delicacy as applied to a nice article of any kind, and hence to articles of food which are particularly attractive. Dainty is stronger, and denotes some exquisite article of cookery. A hotel may be provided with all the delicacies of the season, and its table richly covered with dainties. "These delicacies I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers, Walks and the melody of birds." "(A table) furnished plenteously with bread, And dainties, remnants of the last regale."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Dainty" Quotes from Famous Books



... himself on his hind legs, and began to bleat, marching along with so much dainty gravity, that the entire circle of spectators burst into a laugh at this parody of the interested devoutness ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo

... heart that her lover, fat, simple, pure-minded little Muller, were here to protect her. Yet Mrs. Guinness, no doubt, would have said this man was made of finer clay than the clergyman. Both figure and face were small and delicate: his dress was finical and dainty, from the fur-topped overshoes to the antique seal and the trimming of his gray moustache. He drew off his gloves, holding a white, wrinkled hand to the fire, but Catharine felt the colorless eyes passing over ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. 26, May, 1873 • Various

... a dear old lady?" he cried, "charming, brilliant, human creature! She might have stepped out of a page of Thackeray, only Thackeray never wrote a page quite dainty and charming enough. He came near it in his 'Esmond.' Oh, I remember you don't like the book, but it is beautifully written, Frank, in beautiful simple rhythmic English. It sings itself to the ear. Lady Dorothy" (how he loved the title!) "was always kind to me, but ...
— Oscar Wilde, Volume 2 (of 2) - His Life and Confessions • Frank Harris

... the seats, the handsome Roman women, to see and to be seen the better, sit in the heads of the barouches, at this time of general licence, with their feet upon the cushions—and oh, the flowing skirts and dainty waists, the blessed shapes and laughing faces, the free, good-humoured, gallant figures that they make! There were great vans, too, full of handsome girls—thirty, or more together, perhaps—and the broadsides that were poured into, and poured out of, these fairy fire-shops, ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens

... Miss Celia; and she gladly saw them ramble off together, leaving her time to stitch happily at certain dainty bits of sewing, write voluminous letters, or dream over others quite as long, swinging in her hammock ...
— Under the Lilacs • Louisa May Alcott


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