daintily
Americanadverb
-
in a way that shows fine or delicate manners or tastes.
She'd been nibbling daintily on a sparerib; now she dabbed her lips with a napkin.
-
with particular care to avoid soiling, spilling, damage, etc.; fastidiously.
We piled our trash daintily atop overfilled garbage cans.
-
delicately and beautifully, or with fine, exquisite detail.
I was glad for the moment to be neither an ornithologist nor an entomologist, so that I might leave every one of these daintily colored sunbirds and butterflies to the enjoyment of its life.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of daintily
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
McDonald’s has been the object of social-media derision since a Feb. 3 video of its CEO nibbling daintily at the chain’s latest offering, the multilayer Big Arch.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026
On the second floor, women sat in front of vanity desks as make-up artists powdered their faces and daintily applied blush to the apples of their cheeks.
From Barron's • Nov. 14, 2025
At one point, she daintily wraps a piece of tulle ribbon around a raw fish carcass.
From Salon • May 16, 2023
Another, purple with a splash of white and fuchsia flowers that flows daintily across the bodice.
From New York Times • Feb. 16, 2022
When I looked at Miss Crofts, she had her finger in her hair and she was daintily working her way through another wave.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
