dainty
Americanadjective
-
of delicate beauty; exquisite.
a dainty lace handkerchief.
- Synonyms:
- fine
-
pleasing to the taste and, often, temptingly served or delicate; delicious.
dainty pastries.
- Synonyms:
- scrumptious, mouth-watering, delectable, tender
-
of delicate discrimination or taste; particular.
a dainty eater.
-
overly particular; finicky; fastidious.
- Synonyms:
- overnice
noun
adjective
-
delicate or elegant
a dainty teacup
-
pleasing to the taste; choice; delicious
a dainty morsel
-
refined, esp excessively genteel; fastidious
noun
Synonym Usage
See delicate. See particular.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
daintinessnoun
-
overdaintinessnoun
-
undaintinessnoun
-
overdaintyadjective
-
superdaintyadjective
-
undaintyadjective
-
daintilyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of dainty
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English noun deinte, dainte, dente “worthiness, happiness, delicacy,” from Anglo-French deinte, Old French deint(i)e, from Latin dignitāt- (stem of dignitās ); the adjective is derivative of the noun; see dignity
Explanation
Dainty means tiny, delicate, and lovely, so you could describe a little china tea set as dainty, and you could also call the tiny cakes on the little plates dainty. The original meaning of dainty, back in the 1300s, was "choice morsel of food," and it's still used that way to talk about a delicacy or a treat. More often, dainty is used as an adjective to describe something that's delicate and lovely in a complimentary way.
Vocabulary lists containing dainty
List 5
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"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
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"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
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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.
See Examples For:
This statue yassifies Trump, sucking out his buccal fat, virilizing his features, carefully excising all of the dainty feyness that, whether he likes it or not, is crucial to capturing the unique Trump disposition.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026
The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, a climate-focused investor alliance, used this dainty phrase when it relaunched this week without mentioning its original goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
"It's crazy as our websites are completely different. I sell sterling silver, dainty pieces and engagement jewellery," she said.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025
To some, they conjure ideas of haute cuisine fuss — dainty smears, baby food textures, or unnecessary embellishment.
From Salon ● May 16, 2025
It’s as dainty as the tablecloths inside, and it doesn’t quite match up with the rest of her.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
This interests me as a writer because sometimes these dainties appear unbidden, and you know you’re onto something.
From New York Times ● Jul. 31, 2019
The food will be catered by STK — a steak house — and among the dainties: octopus ceviche, beef tartare. foie gras mousse, beets and boucheron, and tuna apple crudo.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 22, 2015
Playing cards Writing love poetry Practising fencing moves In which work of fiction portraying the English aristocracy do crust-free cucumber dainties become the object of a lie?
From BBC ● May 16, 2012
The restaurants’ Mad Hatter Tea ramps up the traditional three tiers of dainties for Americans whose eyes are never bigger than their stomachs.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2011
On the raft Calypso put food and drink in abundance, even a sack of the dainties Odysseus specially liked.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Botox is now injected behind the ears to tilt them forward, creating the illusion of a smaller, daintier face.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2025
The song “Firefly” starts off a little slower, a swoon-worthy saxophone partnered with a dainty piano and even daintier triangle.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2023
With resignation, Pemberton forked over a relatively merciful $87 to fill her slightly daintier truck.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2022
Then her mistress handed her off to her mother and began carting around her daintier public replacement, Bambi.
From Salon ● Nov. 17, 2021
Maybe Joanna was a bad girl but certainly she kept her baby sweeter and daintier than these good women kept theirs.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
The Bazaar also serves the country’s daintiest chicken wings, which are confited, deboned, pressed, fried and treated to a doll-size cube of blue cheese and a housemade hot sauce enriched with chicken jus.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023
Adding an electric motor completely transforms the experience, making even the daintiest of parents feel superhuman.
From The Verge ● May 26, 2020
There’s a whole api family, and they are the daintiest little fruits imaginable – api noir, in deepest maroon, is easily mistaken at a distance for a plum.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2019
Jones doesn’t crack the slightest of smiles as she sings one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s daintiest tunes, “Many a New Day”:
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 16, 2019
On one side there was a strange-looking cage; on the other, a huge, strange-looking oven; and both were joined to the house by a fence made of the daintiest gingerbread figures imaginable.
From Great Opera Stories Taken from Original Sources in Old German by Bender, Millicent Schwab
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.
