daintier

Adjective

dainty (comparative daintier, superlative daintiest)

1. Elegant; delicately small and pretty.
   • As for thoſe People of the Eaſt, (Goa, Calecute, Malaca,) they vvere a Fine, and Dainty People; Frugall, and yet Elegant, though not Militar.1622 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “An Advertisement Touching an Holy Warre. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S....

   Synonyms:

   neat, petite

2. Fastidious and fussy, especially when eating.
   • UUho when he ſhal embrace you in his arms
     UUil tell how many thouſand men he ſlew.
     And when you looke for amorous diſcourſe,
     Will rattle foorth his facts of war and blood:
     Too harſh a ſubiect for your daintie eares.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
3. (obsolete) Excellent; valuable, fine.
   • Heliogabalus the most dissolute man of the world, amidst his most riotous sensualities, intended, whensoever occasion should force him to it, to have a daintie death.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 13, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

See all 7 meanings of dainty