delicate

adj

1. Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.

   “Those clothes are made from delicate lace.”

   “The negotiations were very delicate.”

   “There are some things too delicate and too sacred to be handled rudely without injury to truth.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

2. Characterized by a fine structure or thin lines.

   “Her face was delicate.”

   “The spider wove a delicate web.”

   “There was a delicate pattern of frost on the window.”

   “You crush a delicate moth wing I see the stain on your fingertips”

3. Intended for use with fragile items.

   “Set the washing machine to the delicate cycle.”

4. Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; said of manners, conduct, or feelings.

   “delicate behaviour”

   “delicate attentions”

   “delicate thoughtfulness”

   “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.”

5. Of weak health; easily sick; unable to endure hardship.

   “a delicate child”

   “delicate health”

   “[E]xamples groſſe as earth exhort me, / Witnes this Army of ſuch maſſe and charge, / Led by a delicate and tender Prince, / Whoſe ſpirit with diuine ambition puft, / Makes mouthes at the inviſible euent, / Expoſing what is mortall, and vnſure, / To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, / Euen for an Egge-ſhell.”

6. (informal)Unwell, especially because of having drunk too much alcohol.

   “Please don't speak so loudly: I'm feeling a bit delicate this morning.”

7. (obsolete)Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring.

   “This [Haarlem] is a very delicate towne, and hath one of the fairest Churches, of the Gotiq design, I had seene.”

8. Pleasing to the senses; refined; adapted to please an elegant or cultivated taste.

   “a delicate dish”

   “delicate flavour”

   “[A]mong Chꝛiſten men there haue been now a greate whyle not a fewe, whych haue thought that it is a true faſte, if vpon certaine dayes they abſtayne only from the fleſhe of fowle, and foure footed beaſtes, thoughe in the meane ceaſon they dilitiouſly fede them ſelues with the fleſhe of fiſthes, and other meates much coſtlier, and delicater, than the commune vſe of fleſhe is.”

   “The Fleſh of man, becauſe its Nouriſhed by purer Blood, is delicater than the fleſh of other Creatures, and prefered before it by Canibals, or Man-Eaters.”

   “They would give up ideas of gentle living, of soft raiment, and delicate feeding.”

9. Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful.

   “Caſ[ſio]. She is a moſt exquiſite Lady. […] Indeede ſhe is a moſt freſh and delicate creature.”

10. Light, or softly tinted; said of a colour.

    “a delicate shade of blue”

11. Of exacting tastes and habits; dainty; fastidious.
12. Highly discriminating or perceptive; refinedly critical; sensitive; exquisite.

    “a delicate taste”

    “a delicate ear for music”

13. Affected by slight causes; showing slight changes.

    “a delicate thermometer”

noun

1. A delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.

   “Don't put that in with your jeans: it's a delicate!”

2. (obsolete)A choice dainty; a delicacy.

   “With Abstinence all Delicates he Sees, / And can regale himself with Toast and Cheese.”

3. (obsolete)A delicate, luxurious, or effeminate person.

   “A council of war was called, and the delicates met in the great cabin ; the platform was rigged up on the forecastle, the yard-rope rove, and the signal made for all boats to attend execution”

   “If Lucullus were not a waster and a delicate given to belly-cheare.”

4. A moth of the species Mythimna vitellina.