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Delicate vs Distribute - What's the difference?

delicate | distribute |

As an adjective delicate

is easily damaged or requiring careful handling.

As a noun delicate

is a delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.

As a verb distribute is

(to divide into portions and dispense) To divide into portions and dispense.

delicate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.
  • Those clothes are made from delicate lace.
    The negotiations were very delicate .
  • * F. W. Robertson
  • There are some things too delicate and too sacred to be handled rudely without injury to truth.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=April 23 , author=Angelique Chrisafis , title=François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=The final vote between Hollande and Sarkozy now depends on a delicate balance of how France's total of rightwing and leftwing voters line up.}}
  • Characterized by a fine structure or thin lines.
  • Her face was delicate .
    The spider wove a delicate web.
    There was a delicate pattern of frost on the window.
  • Intended for use with fragile items.
  • Set the washing machine to the delicate cycle.
  • Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; said of manners, conduct, or feelings.
  • delicate''' behaviour; '''delicate''' attentions; '''delicate thoughtfulness
  • Of weak health; easily sick; unable to endure hardship.
  • a delicate''' child; '''delicate health
  • * Shakespeare
  • a delicate and tender prince
  • (informal) Unwell, especially because of having drunk too much alcohol.
  • Please don't speak so loudly: I'm feeling a bit delicate this morning.
  • (obsolete) Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring.
  • * 1360–1387 , (William Langland), (Piers Plowman) (C-text), passus IX, line 285:
  • Þenk þat diues for hus delicat lyf to þe deuel wente.
  • * circa'' 1660 , (John Evelyn) (author), , volume I of II (1901), entry for the 19th of August in 1641, page 29:
  • Haerlem is a very delicate town and hath one of the fairest churches of the Gothic design I had ever seen.
  • Pleasing to the senses; refined; adapted to please an elegant or cultivated taste.
  • a delicate''' dish; '''delicate flavour
  • Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful.
  • * circa'' 1603 , (William Shakespeare), ''(Othello) , act II, scene iii, lines 18 and 20–21:
  • :   She’s a most exquisite lady.…Indeed, she’s a most fresh and delicate creature.
  • Light, or softly tinted; said of a colour.
  • a delicate shade of blue
  • Of exacting tastes and habits; dainty; fastidious.
  • Highly discriminating or perceptive; refinedly critical; sensitive; exquisite.
  • a delicate''' taste; a '''delicate ear for music
  • Affected by slight causes; showing slight changes.
  • a delicate thermometer

    Synonyms

    * (easily damaged) fragile

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.
  • Don't put that in with your jeans: it's a delicate !
  • (obsolete) A choice dainty; a delicacy.
  • With abstinence all delicates he sees. — Dryden.
  • (obsolete) A delicate, luxurious, or effeminate person.
  • All the vessels, then, which our delicates have, — those I mean that would seem to be more fine in their houses than their neighbours, — are only of the Corinth metal. — Holland.

    distribute

    English

    Verb

    (distribut)
  • (senseid)To divide into portions and dispense.
  • He distributed the bread amongst his followers.
  • (senseid)To supply to retail outlets.
  • The agency distributes newspapers to local shops.
  • (senseid)To deliver or pass out.
  • A network of children distributes flyers to every house.
  • (senseid)To scatter or spread.
  • I raked the soil then distributed grass seed.
  • (senseid)To apportion (more or less evenly).
  • The robot's six legs distributed its weight over a wide area.
  • (senseid)To classify or separate into categories.
  • The database distributed verbs into transitive and intransitive segments.
  • (senseid)(mathematics) To be distributive.
  • (printing) To separate (type which has been used) and return it to the proper boxes in the cases.
  • (printing) To spread (ink) evenly, as upon a roller or a table.
  • (logic) To employ (a term) in its whole extent; to take as universal in one premise.
  • * Whately
  • A term is said to be distributed when it is taken universal, so as to stand for everything it is capable of being applied to.

    Derived terms

    * distributable * distribution * distributionism * distributism * distributivism * distributivity * distributor

    Statistics

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