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Delicate vs Perishable - What's the difference?

delicate | perishable | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between delicate and perishable

is that delicate is easily damaged or requiring careful handling while perishable is liable to perish, especially naturally subject to quick decomposition or decay.

As nouns the difference between delicate and perishable

is that delicate is a delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie while perishable is that which perishes or is short-lived.

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.

    perishable

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • That which perishes or is short-lived.
  • (in the plural) food that does not keep for long.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Liable to perish, especially naturally subject to quick decomposition or decay.
  • Synonyms

    * ephemeral * shortlived

    Antonyms

    * imperishable * unperishable

    Derived terms

    * perishability * perishableness * perishably