Result from Foreign Dictionaries (3 entries found)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Dainty \Dain"ty\, a. [Compar. {Daintier}; superl. {Daintiest}.] 1. Rare; valuable; costly. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Full many a deynt['e] horse had he in stable. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] Note: Hence the proverb "dainty maketh dearth," i. e., rarity makes a thing dear or precious. [1913 Webster] 2. Delicious to the palate; toothsome. [1913 Webster] Dainty bits Make rich the ribs. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. Nice; delicate; elegant, in form, manner, or breeding; well-formed; neat; tender. [1913 Webster] Those dainty limbs which nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy. --Milton. [1913 Webster] I would be the girdle. About her dainty, dainty waist. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] 4. Requiring dainties. Hence: Overnice; hard to please; fastidious; squeamish; scrupulous; ceremonious. [1913 Webster] Thew were a fine and dainty people. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away. --Shak. [1913 Webster] {To make dainty}, to assume or affect delicacy or fastidiousness. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty, She, I'll swear, hath corns. --Shak. [1913 Webster] From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Dainty \Dain"ty\, n.; pl. {Dainties}. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deinti['e] delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See {Deign}, and cf. {Dignity}.] 1. Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] I ne told no deyntee of her love. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] 2. That which is delicious or delicate; a delicacy. [1913 Webster] That precious nectar may the taste renew Of Eden's dainties, by our parents lost. --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster] 3. A term of fondness. [Poetic] --B. Jonson. Syn: {Dainty}, {Delicacy}. Usage: These words are here compared as denoting articles of food. The term delicacy as applied to a nice article of any kind, and hence to articles of food which are particularly attractive. Dainty is stronger, and denotes some exquisite article of cookery. A hotel may be provided with all the delicacies of the season, and its table richly covered with dainties. [1913 Webster] These delicacies I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers, Walks and the melody of birds. --Milton. [1913 Webster] [A table] furnished plenteously with bread, And dainties, remnants of the last regale. --Cowper. [1913 Webster] From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: dainty adj 1: affectedly dainty or refined [syn: {dainty}, {mincing}, {niminy-piminy}, {prim}, {twee}] 2: delicately beautiful; "a dainty teacup"; "an exquisite cameo" [syn: {dainty}, {exquisite}] 3: especially pleasing to the taste; "a dainty dish to set before a kind"; 4: excessively fastidious and easily disgusted; "too nice about his food to take to camp cooking"; "so squeamish he would only touch the toilet handle with his elbow" [syn: {dainty}, {nice}, {overnice}, {prissy}, {squeamish}] n 1: something considered choice to eat [syn: {dainty}, {delicacy}, {goody}, {kickshaw}, {treat}]