Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Great pleasure, particularly of the senses; delight.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Great pleasure; delight.
WordNet 3.0
- n. act of receiving pleasure from something
- n. a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction
Etymologies
- Middle English delectacioun, from Old French, from Latin dēlectātiō, dēlectātiōn-, from dēlectus, past participle of dēlectāre, to please; see delight. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Othewise, what self-respecting apartment wouldn't have book walls, for Angela's teethin delectation only scan months later?”
“He became an actor by the side of whom those comedians that played impromptus for his delectation were the merest bunglers with the art.”
“So: Here today for your delectation is a piece from”
“Among the slew of newbies for our delectation is a legal thriller and a manga with bells (wedding bells, that is) on.”
“Or perhaps should that be 'delectation'; I'd noticed Julian Flynn averting his eyes, but I wasn't fooled - the way he licked at his lips gave his game away.”
“Poussin told a friend that the aim of art is "delectation"; and although the statement is not entirely consistent with some of his earlier ideas, delectation is precisely what comes to mind as you engage with these astonishing paintings.”
“Biscotti were built to travel, as were biscuits, English for the often cheerless sort-of-cookielike items that seem to have been baked for durability rather than delectation.”
“The programme was one of those in which a degraded family, or perhaps I should say a group of human beings who have lived in close association for some time or other, airs its appalling behaviour in public in return, I should imagine, for money, and for the prurient delectation of a voyeuristic audience.”
“The arty delectation of Detroit's destruction - 'ruin porn,' as it's called - it sometimes seems to take up half the Internet," he writes.”
“I'm planning a full-shad dinner (roe appetizer, fish main course) on Thursday, for the delectation of two self-professed shad lovers.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘delectation’.
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 160 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Serendipity's Words
defenestration, mercurial, syzygy, wicked, iniquitous, metastable, demimonde, entropic, ephemeral, irreligious, frisbee, manifold and 474 more...
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Reading Vocab
bleak, batiste, maroon, impiety, aigrette, precious, warrant, ulterior, syllogism, vie, topsy-turvy ago, midnight crush and 180 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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vocabulary
verisimilitude, pendulate, moxie, whimper, nary, stevedore, hubris, prodigious, super-injunction, injunction, lashings, fennel and 202 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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Number 9 Dream
By David Mitchell
slag-heap, coracle, unsilt, aquiline, crispen, treatise, hippocampus, fortuitous, megalomania, malinger, dreck, escarpment and 97 more...
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What David Foster Wallace circled in ...
ablative, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, ailanthus, aleatory, alfresco, algolagnia and 474 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
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What David Foster Wallace Circled in ...
http://www.slate.com/id/2250784/
ablative absolute, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, aleatory, ailanthus, alfresco, algolagnia and 482 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for delectation.
bilby "We have come to believe we can do anything. We can do anything. Accepting that we no longer possess the powers of angels or of devils, that the world no longer exists for our delectation, demands that we do something few people in the rich world have done for many years: recognise that progress now depends upon the exercise of fewer opportunities."
- 'Heat', George Monbiot. Feb 19, 2008
brtom Morose delectation Aquinas tunbelly calls this, frate porcospino. Unfallen Adam rode and not rutted.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3 Dec 29, 2006