| / English Dictionary |
DELICATELY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a delicate manner
Example:
her fine drawn body
Synonyms:
delicately; exquisitely; fine; finely
Classified under:
Pertainym:
delicate (exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury)
Context examples:
It was a leaf-shaped sheet of glass bearing upon it a face with a halo round it, so delicately outlined, and of so perfect a tint, that it might have been indeed a human face which gazed with sad and thoughtful eyes upon the young squire.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She even went farther, in a timid way inciting him, but doing it so delicately that he never suspected, and doing it half- consciously, so that she scarcely suspected herself.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
He walked as delicately as though all the snow were carpeted with porcupine quills, erect and ready to pierce the soft pads of his feet.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Delicate as was the situation, not alone in this but in other ways, I flattered myself that I was able to deal delicately with it; and also I flattered myself that by look or sign I gave no advertisement of the love I felt for her.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I thank YOU, sir, if you please; and with that, and with a little inclination of his head when he passed the bed-side, as an apology for correcting me, he went out, shutting the door as delicately as if I had just fallen into a sweet sleep on which my life depended.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Beautiful as she was, it was not her beauty which impressed itself upon the beholder; it was her strength, her power, the sense of wisdom which hung over the broad white brow, the decision which lay in the square jaw and delicately moulded chin.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And he measured her in a careless way, and knew, bold now, that she would begin to retreat, coyly and delicately, as he pursued, ever ready to reverse the game should he turn fainthearted.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
"Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked delicately.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The straw seats of the car hovered on the edge of combustion; the woman next to me perspired delicately for a while into her white shirtwaist, and then, as her newspaper dampened under her fingers, lapsed despairingly into deep heat with a desolate cry.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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