Word.ws English Dictionary

finikin

finikin adjective: excessively dainty or fastidious. Also the alternative form of finnikin.

Adjective

finikin (comparative more finikin, superlative most finikin)

  1. (dated) Excessively dainty or fastidious.
    • Have a great regard for the cleanliness of your hands, but do not be finikin about it.c. 1745, George Washington, edited by Moncure D. Conway, George Washington's Rules of Civility, published 1890
    • The bearded creatures are quite as eager for praise, quite as finikin over their toilettes, quite as proud of their personal advantages, quite as conscious of their powers of fascination, as any coquette in the world.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

Also used as

finikin is also the alternative form of finnikin.

Forms of finikin

Adjective
comparativemore finikin
superlativemost finikin
Noun
pluralfinikins

Origin of finikin

From Middle Dutch fijnkens (“exactly; precisely”), from fijn (“fine”).

Questions about finikin

What does finikin mean?
Finikin means excessively dainty or fastidious.
What part of speech is finikin?
Finikin is an adjective.

Words near finikin in the dictionary

  1. finify
  2. finifying
  3. Finigan
  4. Finigans
  5. Finighan
  6. finikin
  7. finiking
  8. finikins
  9. fining
  10. finings
  11. finis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: finikin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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