daintily
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adverb:
- In a delicate, small, and pretty manner: Performing an action with careful, precise, and elegant movements, often suggesting fragility or fineness.
- In a refined or fastidious manner: Behaving or acting with particular attention to neatness, politeness, and avoiding mess or vulgarity.
Usage Examples
- Adverb:
- She picked up the porcelain cup daintily, using only her fingertips.
- The dancer moved daintily across the stage, as if floating.
- He ate the strawberry daintily to avoid getting juice on his shirt.
Advanced Usage
- Used to describe careful, elegant action: Often implies a degree of self-consciousness or cultivated grace.
- Despite the informal picnic, she arranged her food on the plate daintily.
- Can imply excessive delicacy or finickiness: Sometimes carries a subtle connotation of being overly precious or fussy.
- He criticized the meal, daintily pushing the vegetables around his plate.
Variants and Related Words
- Dainty (adjective): Delicately small and pretty.
- She wore a dainty gold bracelet.
- Daintiness (noun): The quality of being dainty.
- The daintiness of the embroidery was remarkable.
Synonyms
- Delicately: With fine, careful movements.
- Finely: In a precise and elegant way.
- Fastidiously: With excessive care and attention to detail.
- Nimbly: With light, quick movements (shares the lightness but not necessarily the elegance).
Antonyms
- Clumsily: In an awkward, ungraceful way.
- Carelessly: Without attention or precision.
- Heavily: With weighty, forceful movements.
Related Phrases and Idioms
- "Nibble daintily": A common collocation describing eating small, polite bites.
- The guests nibbled daintily on the hors d'oeuvres.
- "Step daintily": To walk with light, careful steps.
- She stepped daintily over the puddles on the path.
Adverb
- in a delicate manner
- the invitation cards were written up daintily in white and gold
- in a refined manner
- she nibbled daintily at her cake