Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character or quality of being dainty.
  • noun Deliciousness; delicacy as regards taste: applied to food.
  • noun Nicety as regards matters of behavior and decorum; ceremoniousness; fastidiousness in conduct; hence, sensitiveness; softness; effeminacy; weakness of character.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality of being dainty; nicety; niceness; elegance; delicacy; deliciousness; fastidiousness; squeamishness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The characteristic of being dainty.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of being beautiful and delicate in appearance

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

dainty +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • Yes, he weighs 75 pounds, but he flicks his forefeet with a certain daintiness, bends what I guess are his wrists with a certain elegance.

    Dog days of autumn John Kelly 2010

  • Yes, he weighs 75 pounds, but he flicks his forefeet with a certain daintiness, bends what I guess are his wrists with a certain elegance.

    Dog days of autumn John Kelly 2010

  • Yes, he weighs 75 pounds, but he flicks his forefeet with a certain daintiness, bends what I guess are his wrists with a certain elegance.

    Dog days of autumn John Kelly 2010

  • Yes, he weighs 75 pounds, but he flicks his forefeet with a certain daintiness, bends what I guess are his wrists with a certain elegance.

    Dog days of autumn John Kelly 2010

  • She had a certain daintiness about her, too, in her way of dressing – even in the way she did her hair – and in her walk, which made the women say with certain resentment, that Mrs. Paine would like to be "dressy."

    Purple Springs 1921

  • What a difference in "daintiness" a different boot can make eh!

    wench77 Diary Entry wench77 2004

  • In her thin supple figure there was still just the suspicion of incomplete development, which is in itself a fascination; and her country attire, the well-cut brown tweed ulster, the cloth cap from beneath which many little waves of fair silky hair had escaped, the trim gloves and short skirts -- the most insignificant article of her attire -- all seemed to bespeak that peculiar and subtle daintiness which is at the same time the sweetest and the hardest to define of nature's gifts to women.

    The New Tenant 1906

  • In a breath, or the half of a breath, Graham saw the whole breathless situation, realized that the white wonderful creature was a woman, and sensed the smallness and daintiness of her despite her gladiatorial struggles.

    CHAPTER IX 2010

  • But it was a robustness in a finer than the wonted sense, a vigorous daintiness, it might be called, which gave an impression of virility with none of the womanly left out.

    Amateur Night 2010

  • Vivien Leigh, he wrote, approached the role of Cleopatra "with the daintiness of a debutante called upon to dismember a stag."

    A challenging role for a complex thespian Celia Wren 2011

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