1. (n.) That which is agreeable to the senses or delightful; as, a delicacy of flavor.
2. (a.) Nicety or fineness of form, texture, or constitution; softness; elegance; smoothness; tenderness; and hence, frailty or weakness; as, the delicacy of a fiber or a thread; delicacy of a hand or of the human form; delicacy of the skin; delicacy of frame.
3. (a.) Nice propriety of manners or conduct; susceptibility or tenderness of feeling; refinement; fastidiousness; and hence, in an exaggerated sense, effeminacy; as, great delicacy of behavior; delicacy in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action.
4. (a.) Addiction to pleasure; luxury; daintiness; indulgence; luxurious or voluptuous treatment.
5. (a.) Nice and refined perception and discrimination; critical niceness; fastidious accuracy.
6. (n.) The state of being affected by slight causes; sensitiveness; as, the delicacy of a chemist's balance.
7. (a.) That which is alluring, delicate, or refined; a luxury or pleasure; something pleasant to the senses, especially to the sense of taste; a dainty; as, delicacies of the table.
8. (a.) Pleasure; gratification; delight.
Thesaurus Entries
absoluteness, accommodatingness, accuracy, acquired taste, affectivity, agreeableness, airiness, airy texture, allergy, ambrosia, amiable weakness, anaphylaxis, appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciation of excellence, appreciativeness, artistic judgment, ascent, attention to detail, attention to fact, attentiveness, attenuation, banquet, beauty, bonne bouche, breakability, breakableness, brittleness, bubbliness, buoyancy, cachexia, cachexy, care for truth, cate, chanciness, changeableness, choice morsel, choiceness, chronic ill health, circumstantiality, civilized taste, civilizedness, collapse, complaisance, concern, connoisseurship, conscientiousness, considerateness, consideration, correctness, cosseting, crackability, crackableness, crispness, critical niceness, criticality, criticalness, crumbliness, crushability, crushableness, cultivated taste, cultivation, culture, cunningness, cuteness, daintiness, dainty, debilitation, debility, decency, decorousness, decorum, decrepitude, delicate distinction, delicate health, delicateness, dessert, destructibility, detail, diaphanousness, differentia, differential, difficulty, dilutedness, dilution, diminutiveness, discriminating taste, discriminatingness, discrimination, discriminativeness, disintegration, distinction, doubtfulness, down, downiness, dubiousness, easiness, effeminacy, elegance, empathy, enervation, ethereality, exactingness, exactitude, exactness, excellence, exhaustion, exiguity, exiguousness, exility, exquisiteness, faithfulness, fastidiousness, faultlessness, feast, featheriness, feebleness, feel, feeling, fewness, fidelity, filminess, fine palate, fine point, fine-grainedness, fineness, finesse, finicality, finicalness, finickiness, finickingness, fissility, flawlessness, flimsiness, floatability, flossiness, fluff, fluffiness, foaminess, fondness, fracturableness, fragility, frailness, frailty, frangibility, friability, frothiness, fussiness, fuzz, fuzziness, gauziness, gentleness, good taste, goody, gossameriness, grace, gracefulness, gracility, graciosity, graciousness, hairline, hazardousness, healthlessness, heedfulness, helpfulness, human frailty, hyperesthesia, hyperpathia, hypersensitivity, hypochondria, hypochondriasis, identification, ill health, impressionability, inconsequentiality, inconsiderableness, indecisiveness, indulgence, infirmity, infirmity of will, inherent vice, insecurity, insignificance, insolidity, instability, insubstantiality, insufficiency, invalidism, invalidity, irresolution, irritability, judiciousness, laciness, lack of weight, languishing, languishment, leniency, levitation, levity, lightness, literalism, literality, literalness, littleness, luxury, making distinctions, manna, margin, mathematical precision, meagerness, meanness, mellowness, meticulousness, mindfulness, minuteness, mistiness, moderateness, modesty, moral weakness, morbidezza, morbidity, morbidness, morsel, narrow margin, nectar, nervousness, nice distinction, niceness, niceness of distinction, nicety, nonresistiveness, nonrigidity, nuance, obligingness, oversensibility, oversensitiveness, overtenderness, palate, paperiness, particle of difference, particularity, particularness, passibility, peach fuzz, peakedness, perceptiveness, perceptivity, perfection, perilousness, pettiness, photophobia, picayunishness, plushiness, point of difference
