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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



... Love knelt down beside the maid And on her breast a hand unfelt he laid, And drew the gown from off her dainty feet, And set his fair cheek to her shoulder sweet, And kissed her lips that knew of no love yet, And wondered if his heart would e'er forget The perfect arm that ...
— The Earthly Paradise - A Poem • William Morris
... Look, What's here! A dainty Golden thing? See how the dancing Bells turn round, and Ring To please my Bantling! here's a Knack will breed, An hundred Kisses; here's a ...
— The School of Recreation (1684 edition) • Robert Howlett
... me go: for, while I linger here, Piping these dainty ditties for your ear, To win that dearer honey for my own, Daylong my Thestylis doth sit alone, Weeping, mayhap, because the gods have given Song but not sheep—the rarer gift of heaven; And little Phyllis solitary grows, ...
— English Poems • Richard Le Gallienne
... What he had thought at twenty, at thirty-five had acquired sanctity and certainty, from having been the opinion of Hubert Temperley for all those favoured years. He had no suspicion that the views which he cherished in so dainty and scholarly a fashion were simply an edition de luxe of the views of everybody else. But his wife had made that discovery long ago. He smiled at the views of everybody else: his own were put forth as something choice and superior. ...
— The Daughters of Danaus • Mona Caird
... Paul's eyes would wander around the table; and from its dainty dishes and exquisite flowers return to their true lodestone, his hostess. In fact, the girl possessed a mesmeric charm for him, which had grown with marvelous ...
— The Ghost of Guir House • Charles Willing Beale


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