delicate

Meanings

1. Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.
2. Characterized by a fine structure or thin lines.
3. Intended for use with fragile items.
4. Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; said of manners, conduct, or feelings.
5. Of weak health; easily sick; unable to endure hardship.
6. Unwell, especially because of having drunk too much alcohol.
7. Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring.
8. Pleasing to the senses; refined; adapted to please an elegant or cultivated taste.
9. Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful.
10. Light, or softly tinted; said of a colour.
11. Of exacting tastes and habits; dainty; fastidious.
12. Highly discriminating or perceptive; refinedly critical; sensitive; exquisite.

1. A delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.
2. A choice dainty; a delicacy.
3. A delicate, luxurious, or effeminate person.
4. A moth of the species Mythimna vitellina.

Etymology

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).