Dainty

dainty
    adj 1: affectedly dainty or refined [syn: {dainty}, {mincing},
           {niminy-piminy}, {prim}, {twee}]
    2: delicately beautiful; "a dainty teacup"; "an exquisite cameo"
       [syn: {dainty}, {exquisite}]
    3: especially pleasing to the taste; "a dainty dish to set
       before a kind";
    4: excessively fastidious and easily disgusted; "too nice about
       his food to take to camp cooking"; "so squeamish he would
       only touch the toilet handle with his elbow" [syn: {dainty},
       {nice}, {overnice}, {prissy}, {squeamish}]
    n 1: something considered choice to eat [syn: {dainty},
         {delicacy}, {goody}, {kickshaw}, {treat}]
    

Dainty \Dain"ty\, a. [Compar. {Daintier}; superl. {Daintiest}.]
   1. Rare; valuable; costly. [Obs.]
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            Full many a deynt['e] horse had he in stable.
                                                  --Chaucer.
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   Note: Hence the proverb "dainty maketh dearth," i. e., rarity
         makes a thing dear or precious.
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   2. Delicious to the palate; toothsome.
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            Dainty bits
            Make rich the ribs.                   --Shak.
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   3. Nice; delicate; elegant, in form, manner, or breeding;
      well-formed; neat; tender.
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            Those dainty limbs which nature lent
            For gentle usage and soft delicacy.   --Milton.
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            I would be the girdle.
            About her dainty, dainty waist.       --Tennyson.
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   4. Requiring dainties. Hence: Overnice; hard to please;
      fastidious; squeamish; scrupulous; ceremonious.
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            Thew were a fine and dainty people.   --Bacon.
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            And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
            But shift away.                       --Shak.
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   {To make dainty}, to assume or affect delicacy or
      fastidiousness. [Obs.]
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            Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all
            Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty,
            She, I'll swear, hath corns.          --Shak.
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Dainty \Dain"ty\, n.; pl. {Dainties}. [OE. deinie, dainte,
   deintie, deyntee, OF. deinti['e] delicacy, orig., dignity,
   honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See {Deign}, and
   cf. {Dignity}.]
   1. Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in
      anything. [Obs.]
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            I ne told no deyntee of her love.     --Chaucer.
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   2. That which is delicious or delicate; a delicacy.
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            That precious nectar may the taste renew
            Of Eden's dainties, by our parents lost. --Beau. &
                                                  Fl.
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   3. A term of fondness. [Poetic] --B. Jonson.

   Syn: {Dainty}, {Delicacy}.

   Usage: 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.
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                These delicacies
                I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits,
                and flowers,
                Walks and the melody of birds.    --Milton.
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                [A table] furnished plenteously with bread,
                And dainties, remnants of the last regale.
                                                  --Cowper.
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194 Moby Thesaurus words for "dainty":
      acute, agreeable, airy, ambrosia, ambrosial, appetizing, attenuate,
      attenuated, beautiful, bleached, bonne bouche, bonny, breakable,
      bright, brittle, cate, cheap-jack, choice, choice morsel,
      civilized, clean, cleanly, cobwebby, comestible, comfit, crumbly,
      cultivated, cultured, cunning, cute, delectable, delicacy, delicat,
      delicate, delicately weak, delicious, delightful, dessert,
      diaphanous, dirt-free, discriminating, downy, easy, eatable,
      edible, effeminate, elegant, esculent, ethereal, exquisite, fair,
      fastidious, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, fine-grained, finespun,
      finical, finicking, finicky, flimsy, fluffy, fragile, frail,
      frangible, fresh, fussy, fuzzy, gauzy, genteel, gentle, gimcrack,
      gimcracky, good, good to eat, good-tasting, goody, gossamer,
      gossamery, graceful, gracile, gracious, gustable, gusty,
      immaculate, jerry, jerry-built, juicy, kickshaw, kosher, light,
      lightweight, likable, lovely, luscious, lush, manna, mignon,
      mincing, morsel, namby-pamby, neat, nectar, nectareous, nectarous,
      nice, nonpolluted, of cleanly habits, of gourmet quality,
      overrefined, palatable, papery, particular, pasteboardy,
      perceptive, pernickety, persnickety, pleasing, polished, pretty,
      pubescent, puny, pure, rare, rarefied, recherche, refined,
      ritually pure, sapid, satin, satiny, savorous, savory, scrumptious,
      select, sensitive, shattery, shiny, silky, sissified, sleazy,
      slight, smooth, smut-free, smutless, soft, sophisticated, spotless,
      squeamish, stainless, subtile, subtle, succulent, superior, sweet,
      sweetmeat, tacky, tahar, tasty, tender, tenuous, thin, thin-spun,
      tidbit, titbit, toothsome, treat, tubbed, unadulterated,
      unbesmirched, unblemished, unblotted, undefiled, unmuddied,
      unpolluted, unsmirched, unsmudged, unsoiled, unspotted, unstained,
      unsubstantial, unsullied, untainted, untarnished, velutinous,
      velvety, well-scrubbed, well-washed, white, whitened, wiredrawn,
      wispy, womanish, yummy