All 9 Uses of

delicacy

in

The House of the Seven Gables

The delicacies of the season, in short, and flavored by a brand of old Madeira which has been the pride of many seasons.†
Chpt 18 *

delicacies = things that are rare or expensive -- usually prized foods

On the score of delicacy, or any scrupulousness which a finer sensibility might have taught him, the Colonel, like most of his breed and generation, was impenetrable.†
Chpt 1

The cups—not having been used, perhaps, since Hepzibah's youth—had contracted no small burden of dust, which Phoebe washed away with so much care and delicacy as to satisfy even the proprietor of this invaluable china.†
Chpt 5

The country-girl, willing to give her utmost assistance, proposed to make an Indian cake, after her mother's peculiar method, of easy manufacture, and which she could vouch for as possessing a richness, and, if rightly prepared, a delicacy, unequalled by any other mode of breakfast-cake.†
Chpt 7

He knew it, with the instinctive delicacy that had survived his intellectual decay.†
Chpt 9

Not merely was there a delight in the flower's perfume, or pleasure in its beautiful form, and the delicacy or brightness of its hue; but Clifford's enjoyment was accompanied with a perception of life, character, and individuality, that made him love these blossoms of the garden, as if they were endowed with sentiment and intelligence.†
Chpt 10

Hepzibah, on learning the fact, took possession of the egg and appropriated it to Clifford's breakfast, on account of a certain delicacy of flavor, for which, as she affirmed, these eggs had always been famous.†
Chpt 10

Hereupon, the offended fowl stalked away on his long stilts, and utterly withdrew his notice from Phoebe and the rest of human nature, until she made her peace with an offering of spice-cake, which, next to snails, was the delicacy most in favor with his aristocratic taste.†
Chpt 10

At any rate, Phoebe soon felt that, if not the profound insight of a seer, yet a more than feminine delicacy of appreciation, was making her heart the subject of its regard.†
Chpt 14

Definitions:

(1) (delicacy as in: eat the delicacy)
something that is rare or expensive -- usually a prized food
(2) (delicacy as in: discuss with delicacy)
care and gentleness -- especially speaking or acting with sensitivity and tact
(3) (delicacy as in: offend her delicacy)
the quality of being easily hurt or damaged

(often referring to the fragility of someone's emotional well being when it is easily distressed by something that is offensive or disturbing)
(4) (delicacy as in: delicacy of the brushwork)
pleasant subtlety or fineness