What choice to choose for delicacy best. --Milton.
2. 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. 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.
You know your mother's delicacy in this point.
--Cowper.
4. Addiction to pleasure; luxury; daintiness; indulgence;
luxurious or voluptuous treatment.
And to those dainty limbs which Nature lent For
gentle usage and soft delicacy? --Milton.
5. Nice and refined perception and discrimination; critical
niceness; fastidious accuracy.
That Augustan delicacy of taste which is the boast
of the great public schools of England. --Macaulay.
6. The state of being affected by slight causes;
sensitiveness; as, the delicacy of a chemist's balance.
7. 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.
The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through
the abundance of her delicacies. --Rev. xviii.
3.
8. Pleasure; gratification; delight. [Obs.]
He Rome brent for his delicacie. --Chaucer.