Dainty, a. [Compar. Daintier; superl. Daintiest.]
1. Rare; valuable; costly. [Obs.] Full many a deynté horse had he in stable. Chaucer.
Note: Hence the proverb "dainty maketh dearth," i. e., rarity makes a thing dear or precious.
2. Delicious to the palate; toothsome. Dainty bits Make rich the ribs. Shak.
3. Nice; delicate;elegant, in form, manner, or breeding; well-formed; neat; tender. Those dainty limbs which nature lent For gentle usage and soft delicacy. Milton. Iwould be the girdle. About her dainty, dainty waist. Tennyson.
1 more senses
4. Requirinig daintles. Hence; Overnice; hard to please; fastidious; sqrupulous; ceremonious. Thew were a fine and Dainty people. Bacon. And let us not be dainty of leave taking, But shift away. Shak. To make dainty, to assume or affect delicacy or fastidiousness. [Obs.] Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all Will now deny to dance She that makes dainty, She, I'll swear, hath corns. Shak.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Dainty, n.; pl. Dainties.
1. Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [Obs.] I ne told no deyntee of her love. Chaucer.
2. That which is delicious or delicate; a delicacy. That precious nectar may the taste renew Of Eden's dainties, by our parents lost. Beau. & Fl.
3. A term of fondness. [Poetic] B. Jonson.
Syn. -- Dainty, Delicacy. These words are here compared as denoting articles of food. The term delicacy as applied to a nice article of any kind, and hence to articles of food which are particularly attractive. Dainty is stronger, and denotes some exquisite article of cookery. A hotel may be provided with all the delicacies of the season, and its table richly covered with dainties. These delicacies I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers, Walks and the melody of birds. Milton. [A table] furnished plenteously with bread, And dainties, remnants of the last regale. Cowper.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for dainty; he lists it under delicious, fine, tasteful.
Where he writes about it:
That which is finished is apt to be polished, smooth to the touch, minutely exact in outline; hence fine comes to be a synonym for all words like dainty, delicate, exquisite; as, fine manners, a fine touch, fine perceptions. — from fine
Dainty and delicate refer to the lighter and finer elements of taste and beauty, dainty tending in personal use to an excessive scrupulousness which is more fully expressed by fastidious. — from tasteful