| 释义 |
delicacy|ˈdɛlɪkəsɪ|
Also 5 -asie, -asye, 5–6 -acie.
[f. delicate a.: see -acy, and cf. obstinacy, secrecy.]
I. The quality of being delicate (in various senses of the adj.). II. A thing in which this quality is displayed or embodied.
I.
†1. The quality of being addicted to pleasure or sensuous delights; voluptuousness, luxuriousness, daintiness. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Former Age 58 Yit was nat Iuppiter the lykerous Þat fyrst was fadyr of delicasie. 1393Gower Conf. III. 21 Of the seconde glotony, Which cleped is delicacy. Ibid. III. 115 He shall be..lusty to delicacy In every thing which he shall do. c1550Disc. Common Weal Eng. (1893) 5 Our dylycasye in requyrynge strangers wares. 1593Nashe Christ's T. 140 Thus much of delicacy in general; now more particularly of his first branch, gluttony. 1680C. Blount tr. Philostratus 229 (Trench) Cephisodorus, the disciple of Isocrates, charged him with delicacy, intemperance, and gluttony. 1741Middleton Cicero II. xii. 503 In his [Cicero's] cloaths and dress..avoiding the extremes of a rustic negligence and foppish delicacy.
†2. Luxury; pampering indulgence. Obs.
1393Gower Conf. I. 14 Delicacie his swete toþ Haþ fostred so þat it fordoþ Of abstinence al þat þer is. c1450Lonelich Grail xlii. 554 The Cristene men..weren Alle ful Richely..Ifed with alle delicasy. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 7 The common sort preferreth shamefull and beastly delicasie, before honest and vertuous labour. 1629Maxwell tr. Herodian (1635) 127 The glory of a Souldier consists in labour, not in lazinesse or delicacie. 1665G. Havers Sir T. Roe's Voy. E. Ind. 477 A life that was full of pomp, and pleasure, and delicacy. 1725Pope Odyss. xx. 82 Venus in tender delicacy rears With honey, milk, and wine, their infant years.
†b. Gratification, pleasure, delectation. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Monk's T. 401 He Rome brende for his delicasie. 1667Milton P.L. v. 333 She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent What choice to chuse for delicacie best.
†3. The quality of being delightful to the palate; delicateness or daintiness (of food). Obs.
1393Gower Conf. II. 83 Berconius of cokerie First made the delicacie. 1650Jer. Taylor Holy Living ii. §1 Be not troublesome to thyself or others in the choice of thy meats or the delicacy of thy sauces.
†4. The quality of being delightful, esp. to the intellectual senses; beauty, daintiness, pleasantness. Obs.
1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xi. xxii, O redolent well of famous poetry..Reflerynge out the dulcet delicacy Of iiii. ryvers in mervaylous wydenesse. 1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 48 Feeding on the delicacie of their features. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. i. 5 Euen in the agedst face, where beautie once did dwell..something wil appeare To showe some little tract of delicacie there. Ibid. vii. 106 The aire with such delights and delicacie fils, As makes it loth to stirre, or thence those smels to beare. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 61 Some peculiar Houses..may be competitors for delicacie with most in Europe.
5. Exquisite fineness of texture, substance, finish, etc.; graceful slightness, slenderness, or softness; soft or tender beauty.
a1586Sidney (J.), A man..in whom strong making took not away delicacy, nor beauty fierceness. 1615Crooke Body of Man (1616) 730 Anaxagoras..marking diligently..the postures of the fingers..and the soft delicacy thereof. 1744Harris Three Treat. iii. ii. (1765) 217 No Woman ever equalled the Delicacy of the Medicean Venus. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. xvi, An air of robustness and strength is very prejudicial to beauty. An appearance of delicacy and even of fragility, is almost essential to it. 1874Green Short Hist. vii. §3. 363 She [Elizabeth] would play with her rings that her courtiers might note the delicacy of her hands.
6. Tenderness or weakliness of constitution or health; want of strength or robustness; susceptibility to injury or disease.
1632J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 93 Cause to conjecture, that the delicacie of her sex kept disproportioned companie with..her courage. 1711Addison Spect. No. 3 ⁋3 Whether it was from the Delicacy of her Constitution, or that she was troubled with the Vapours. 1759Dilworth Pope 136 From the delicacy of his body, his life had been a continual scene of suffering to him. 1816Keatinge Trav. (1817) II. 181 The silk-cultivation has been on the decline in this part of the world, from the extreme delicacy of the insect. 1872B. Clayton Dogs 20 The great drawback [to the Italian Greyhound] is its delicacy; it requires the utmost care.
7. The quality or condition of requiring nice and skilful handling.
1785Burke Sp. Nabob Arcot Wks. 1842 I. 318 That our concerns in India were matters of delicacy. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 679 The extreme difficulty and delicacy of drawing the line of limitation [in a list of eminent men]. 1857Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. I. Pref. 7, I was aware..of the difficulty and delicacy of the office which I had undertaken. 1885L'pool Daily Post 1 June 5/3 Absorbed in negotiations of the utmost delicacy.
8. Exquisite fineness of feeling, observation, etc.; nicety of perception; sensitiveness of appreciation.
1702Rowe Tamerl. Ded., Poetry..will still be the Entertainment of all wise Men, that have any Delicacy in their Knowledge. a1704T. Brown Sat. Antients Wks. 1730 I. 23 To make the delicacy of his sentiments perceived. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 60 His principles would be relaxed, and the delicacy of his sense of right and wrong impaired. 1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 29 Warming the water is said to increase the delicacy of taste. 1884Church Bacon ix. 216 Their truth and piercingness and delicacy of observation.
b. transf. Of instruments, etc.: Responsiveness to the slightest influence or change; sensitiveness.
1871B. Stewart Heat §29 Such an instrument will therefore indicate any difference of temperature with great delicacy.
9. Exquisite fineness or nicety of skill, expression, touch, etc.
1675tr. Machiavelli's Prince (Rtldg. 1883) 198 This double intelligence was managed with..slyness and delicacy. 1683D. A. Art Converse 103 With modest Apologies and delicacy of expression. a1700Dryden (J.), Van Dyck has even excelled him in the delicacy of his colouring. 1759Robertson Hist. Scotl. I. i. 69 Henry VIII of England held the balance with less delicacy, but with a stronger hand. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 66 Scotsmen..wrote Latin verse with more than the delicacy of Vida. 1885Truth 28 May 848/2 The spray is rendered with much lightness and delicacy.
10. A refined sense of what is becoming, modest or proper; sensitiveness to the feelings of modesty, shame, etc.; delicate regard for the feelings of others.
1712Steele Spect. No. 286 ⁋1 A false Delicacy is Affectation, not Politeness. 1732Mallet in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 269, I am sure you will do it with all the delicacy natural to your own disposition. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xviii. xiii, This..somewhat reconciled the delicacy of Sophia to the public entertainment, which..she was obliged to go to. 1832Lytton Eugene A. i. x, It would be a false delicacy in me to deny that I have observed it. 1843Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. x. 171 Nothing can exceed their cordiality and delicacy, so that their benefactions are given as a compliment.
†11. Fastidiousness; squeamishness. Obs.
1725Pope Odyss. xix. 397 The delicacy of your courtly train To wash a wretched wand'rer wou'd disdain. 1771E. Griffith tr. Viaud's Shipwreck 104 It was almost come to a state of putrefaction, but hunger has no delicacy; so having broiled it [etc.]. 1793Beddoes Math. Evid. 118 The common old thin 4to. is not adapted to modern delicacy in books.
II.
12. A thing which gives delight; something delightful. arch.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 24 [To] beleeve that..our very senses are partakers of every delicacie in them contained. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 197 These delicacies and spirituall delights. 1609Bible (Douay) Isa. li. 3 He wil make her desert as delicacies [Wyclif delices]. 1650Jer. Taylor Holy Living (1727) 242 God..encourages our duty with..sensible pleasure and delicacies in prayer. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 526 These delicacies of Taste, Sight, Smell, Herbs, Fruits, & Flours, Walks, and the melodie of Birds. 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 22 The President's company is a delicacy in itself.
b. esp. Something that gratifies the palate, a choice or dainty item of food; a dainty.
c1450Lonelich Grail lv. 270 The peple..weren Repleynsched..with alle Maner Metes and delecasyes. 1596Drayton Legends iii. 118 Me with Ambrosiall Delicacies fed. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 172 ⁋10 Untasted delicacies solicit his appetite. 1879Farrar St. Paul (1883) 194 A pig..was..the chief delicacy at Gentile banquets. 1884G. Allen Philistia III. 156 Oysters, sweetbreads, red mullet, any little delicacy of that sort.
†c. A luxury; a sensual pleasure. Obs.
1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 19 These lurke loyteringlie plunged in delicacies..as Swine in the mire. 1605Verstegan Dec. Intell. vi. (1628) 165 A people very strong and hardy, and the rather for not beeing weakned with delicacies.
13. A delicate trait, observance, or attention.
1712Steele Spect. No. 491 ⁋2 The Decencies, Honours and Delicacies that attend the Passion towards them [women] in elegant Minds. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 98 ⁋5 Those little civilities and ceremonious delicacies. 1779J. Moore View Soc. Fr. II. xciv. 418 A woman, and acquainted with all the weakness and delicacies of the sex.
14. A nicety, a refinement.
1789Stokes Let. in Pettigrew Mem. Lettsom (1817) III. 402 In these delicacies we wish to be confirmed or corrected by those who are real masters in the profession. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 524 To disregard the grammatical delicacies of the written language. |