dainty
English
Etymology
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From Old French deintié, from Latin dignitātem. Doublet of dignity.
Pronunciation
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Audio (US): (file) Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -eɪnti
Noun
dainty (plural dainties)
- (obsolete) Esteem, honour.
- A delicacy.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- […] my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was not driven to any extremities for food, but had rather plenty, even to dainties.
- (Can we date this quote by William Cowper and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- [A table] furnished plenteously with bread, / And dainties, remnants of the last regale.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- (Canada, Prairies and northwestern Ontario) A fancy cookie, pastry, or square served at a social event (usually plural).
- (obsolete) An affectionate term of address.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)
Related terms
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Translations
a delicacy
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Adjective
dainty (comparative daintier, superlative daintiest)
- (obsolete) Excellent; valuable, fine.
- Elegant; delicately small and pretty.
- (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Those dainty limbs which nature lent / For gentle usage and soft delicacy.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
- However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.
- (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Fastidious and fussy, especially when eating.
- (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- They were a fine and dainty people.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
- And let us not be dainty of leave taking, / But shift away.
- (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Synonyms
Translations
delicately small and pretty
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fastidious and fussy when eating
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References
- “dainty” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪnti
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for date/William Cowper
- Canadian English
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- English adjectives
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- en:Appearance