adjective
- Exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury.
- usage: "a delicate violin passage"; "delicate china"; "a delicate flavor"; "the delicate wing of a butterfly"
- Marked by great skill especially in meticulous technique.
- usage: "a surgeon's delicate touch"
- Easily broken or damaged or destroyed.
- usage: "a kite too delicate to fly safely"; "fragile porcelain plates"; "fragile old bones"; "a frail craft"
- Easily hurt.
- usage: "soft hands"; "a baby's delicate skin"
- synonyms: soft
- Developed with extreme delicacy and subtlety.
- usage: "the satire touches with finespun ridicule every kind of human pretense"
- synonyms: finespun
- Difficult to handle; requiring great tact.
- usage: "delicate negotiations with the big powers";"hesitates to be explicit on so ticklish a matter"; "a touchy subject"
- Of an instrument or device; capable of registering minute differences or changes precisely.
- usage: "almost undetectable with even the most delicate instruments"
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). delicate. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/delicate/definitions/1172155 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "delicate" http://smartdefine.org/delicate/definitions/1172155 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, delicate, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/delicate/definitions/1172155>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "delicate" 23 October 2010. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/delicate/definitions/1172155> |