dainty

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He seemed a new de Banville--dainty, dallying, and deft--a writer of witty and pretty verses--nothing more.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. adjective Delicately beautiful or charming; exquisite: "No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year” (Walt Whitman).
  2. adjective Delicious or choice. See Synonyms at delicate.
  3. adjective Of refined taste; discriminating.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (14)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

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This word has been looked up 149 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

delicate ·  nice ·  neat ·  slender ·  soft ·  silken ·  gorgeous ·  pink ·  quaint
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English deinte, excellent, excellence, from Old French deintie, from Latin dignitās, from dignus, worthy; see dek- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also daintie, and abbreviation daint (q. v.); from Middle English daynte, deynte, deyntee, deintie (also dayntethe, deintithe, whence Scots daintith, dainteth), etc., honor, worth, a thing valued, pleasure, from Old French daintie, deintie, daintiet, dointie, deintiet = Provencal dentat, dintat, pleasure, agreeableness, from Latin dignita(t-)s, worth, dignity: see dignity, of which dainty is thus a doublet. Cf. dis-dain, and dain, old spelling of deign, from the same ult. source.
 

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/ˈdeɪnti/
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