What's the difference between delicate and weak?

Delicate


Definition:

  • (a.) Addicted to pleasure; luxurious; voluptuous; alluring.
  • (a.) Pleasing to the senses; refinedly agreeable; hence, adapted to please a nice or cultivated taste; nice; fine; elegant; as, a delicate dish; delicate flavor.
  • (a.) Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful; as, "a delicate creature."
  • (a.) Fine or slender; minute; not coarse; -- said of a thread, or the like; as, delicate cotton.
  • (a.) Slight or smooth; light and yielding; -- said of texture; as, delicate lace or silk.
  • (a.) Soft and fair; -- said of the skin or a surface; as, a delicate cheek; a delicate complexion.
  • (a.) Light, or softly tinted; -- said of a color; as, a delicate blue.
  • (a.) Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; -- said of manners, conduct, or feelings; as, delicate behavior; delicate attentions; delicate thoughtfulness.
  • (a.) Tender; not able to endure hardship; feeble; frail; effeminate; -- said of constitution, health, etc.; as, a delicate child; delicate health.
  • (a.) Requiring careful handling; not to be rudely or hastily dealt with; nice; critical; as, a delicate subject or question.
  • (a.) Of exacting tastes and habits; dainty; fastidious.
  • (a.) Nicely discriminating or perceptive; refinedly critical; sensitive; exquisite; as, a delicate taste; a delicate ear for music.
  • (a.) Affected by slight causes; showing slight changes; as, a delicate thermometer.
  • (n.) A choice dainty; a delicacy.
  • (n.) A delicate, luxurious, or effeminate person.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Even if it does not always provide the solution to a particularly delicate problem, which is often of vital importance, it provides data which, modifiable and better used, should provide an adequate notion of the anatomical and physiopathological state in aortic stenosis.
  • (2) A layer of thick and dense delicate filament-like substance was attached to the surface of the cell body of Cp in the ultrathin sections with ruthenium red staining, in the case of Cj only a little of such a substance could be noted.
  • (3) For a while North Korea refused to play, but after delicate negotiations the players were persuaded back on to the pitch and the correct flag was displayed alongside the team photos.
  • (4) As one example, certain aspects of Gawain's situation seem oddly redolent of a more contemporary predicament, namely our complex and delicate relationship with the natural world.
  • (5) In sections of cells rich in cytoplasm, the basal bodies are particularly difficult to visualize due to their small size (25 to 45 mmicro) and the lack of properties that would enable one to distinguish them from the ribonucleoprotein structures; in addition, their boundary appears to be delicate.
  • (6) "These are delicate times and we take a positive role," Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, told the Guardian today.
  • (7) Even extraembryonic membranes can form strands of tissue that can entangle the delicate developing foot plate, and calcaneovalgus deformities could conceivably be established.
  • (8) Through this clear indication, it could be said, that pregnancies with delicate prognosis through tocolytic therapy are possibly unnecessarily lengthened and the final result is not better.
  • (9) Oil is coating birds and delicate wetlands along the Louisiana coast, and the political fallout from the spill has reached Washington, where the head of the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned today.
  • (10) Filo pastry contains very little fat itself but relies on fat being added later in between incredibly fine sheets, allowing them to separate during cooking, and so shatter in the mouth into fine delicate shards.
  • (11) Ultrarapid freezing, followed by delicate freeze-substitution, immobilizes and retains much more ECM than chemical fixatives that include tannic acid (TA).
  • (12) Ultrastructural study confirmed the diagnosis by revealing tumour cells with delicate interdigitating cytoplasmic processes and basement membrane formation resembling pericytes.
  • (13) The cholera toxin subunit B-containing retinal efferents were effectively stained and yielded the presence of axons with delicate boutons on passage and nerve endings.
  • (14) Type I cases were technically more difficult and had a slightly higher surgical morbidity than Type II cases, especially if an oblique bone septum had asymmetrically divided the cord into one larger hemicord and one smaller, hence, very delicate, hemicord.
  • (15) One thing that isn't the same as in 2003: the delicately balanced relations among the many communities, ethnic and religious, in this most diverse region in Iraq have not been broken again.
  • (16) There are many differences between full dentures on BrÃ¥nemark implants and fixed partial dentures built on the same type of implants: due to some more critical anatomical conditions, the choice of number, position and length of the implants is more delicate; the need of an harmonious crown-gingival tissue relationship; higher occlusal forces than in edentalous cases; difficulty in satisfying aesthetic requirements and ease of hygiene.
  • (17) Tissue characteristics of this laser energy should permit the vaporization of the stapes footplate or oval window soft tissue without thermal effect to the vestibule and without passing through the perilymph to damage the delicate structures of the inner ear.
  • (18) David Cameron suggests that the prospect of giving prisoners the vote makes him feel physically ill. For a man with such an apparently delicate constitution, it is surprising that wilfully ignoring a succession of court rulings appears to have so little effect on him."
  • (19) In their hands, the work of constitutional negotiations became a delicate art.
  • (20) The climate of xenophobia and police brutality in Egypt has raised questions for Italian prosecutors as to whether it was appropriate for Cambridge University to allow a young foreign student to go Cairo and undertake field research into such a delicate topic.

Weak


Definition:

  • (v. i.) Wanting physical strength.
  • (v. i.) Deficient in strength of body; feeble; infirm; sickly; debilitated; enfeebled; exhausted.
  • (v. i.) Not able to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain; as, a weak timber; a weak rope.
  • (v. i.) Not firmly united or adhesive; easily broken or separated into pieces; not compact; as, a weak ship.
  • (v. i.) Not stiff; pliant; frail; soft; as, the weak stalk of a plant.
  • (v. i.) Not able to resist external force or onset; easily subdued or overcome; as, a weak barrier; as, a weak fortress.
  • (v. i.) Lacking force of utterance or sound; not sonorous; low; small; feeble; faint.
  • (v. i.) Not thoroughly or abundantly impregnated with the usual or required ingredients, or with stimulating and nourishing substances; of less than the usual strength; as, weak tea, broth, or liquor; a weak decoction or solution; a weak dose of medicine.
  • (v. i.) Lacking ability for an appropriate function or office; as, weak eyes; a weak stomach; a weak magistrate; a weak regiment, or army.
  • (v. i.) Not possessing or manifesting intellectual, logical, moral, or political strength, vigor, etc.
  • (v. i.) Feeble of mind; wanting discernment; lacking vigor; spiritless; as, a weak king or magistrate.
  • (v. i.) Resulting from, or indicating, lack of judgment, discernment, or firmness; unwise; hence, foolish.
  • (v. i.) Not having full confidence or conviction; not decided or confirmed; vacillating; wavering.
  • (v. i.) Not able to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable; as, weak resolutions; weak virtue.
  • (v. i.) Wanting in power to influence or bind; as, weak ties; a weak sense of honor of duty.
  • (v. i.) Not having power to convince; not supported by force of reason or truth; unsustained; as, a weak argument or case.
  • (v. i.) Wanting in point or vigor of expression; as, a weak sentence; a weak style.
  • (v. i.) Not prevalent or effective, or not felt to be prevalent; not potent; feeble.
  • (v. i.) Lacking in elements of political strength; not wielding or having authority or energy; deficient in the resources that are essential to a ruler or nation; as, a weak monarch; a weak government or state.
  • (v. i.) Tending towards lower prices; as, a weak market.
  • (v. i.) Pertaining to, or designating, a verb which forms its preterit (imperfect) and past participle by adding to the present the suffix -ed, -d, or the variant form -t; as in the verbs abash, abashed; abate, abated; deny, denied; feel, felt. See Strong, 19 (a).
  • (v. i.) Pertaining to, or designating, a noun in Anglo-Saxon, etc., the stem of which ends in -n. See Strong, 19 (b).
  • (a.) To make or become weak; to weaken.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There was a weak relation between AER and both systolic and diastolic blood pressures.
  • (2) Muscle weakness and atrophy were most marked in the distal parts of the legs, especially in the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, and then spread to the thighs and gluteal muscles.
  • (3) Consensual but rationally weak criteria devised to extract inferences of causality from such results confirm the generic inadequacy of epidemiology in this area, and are unable to provide definitive scientific support to the perceived mandate for public health action.
  • (4) The strengths and weaknesses of each technique are described in this article.
  • (5) In group V, five cases of Taenia saginata parasitosis were studied showing a weak positive reading.
  • (6) Although the longest period required for resolving weakness was three days, the MRI, the CT and the electroencephalogram revealed no significant abnormality.
  • (7) Her muscle weakness and hyperCKemia markedly improved by corticosteroid therapy, suggesting that the diagnosis was compatible with polymyositis (PM).
  • (8) It was concluded that Ta acts as a weak zeitgeber in laboratory rats and has greater effects on males compared to females.
  • (9) And adding to this toxic mix, was the fear that the hung parliament would lead to a weak government.
  • (10) Sensory loss, motor weakness, paraesthesia and a new pain were found as complications in 12, 7, 4 and 6 patients, respectively.
  • (11) Here's Dominic's full story: US unemployment rate drops to lowest level in six years as 288,000 jobs added Michael McKee (@mckonomy) BNP economists say jobless rate would have been 6.8% if not for drop in participation rate May 2, 2014 2.20pm BST ING's Rob Carnell is also struck by the "extraordinary weakness" of US wage growth .
  • (12) In general, enzyme activity was strongly reduced by heavy metal inorganic cations; less strongly by organometallic cations, some anions, and certain pesticides; and weakly inhibited by light metal cations and organometallic and organic compounds.
  • (13) The weakness was treated by intensive physical rehabilitation with complete and sustained recovery in all cases.
  • (14) It also showed weak inhibition of the solid type of Ehrlich carcinoma and prolonged the survival period of mice inoculated with L-1210 cells.
  • (15) Exposure to whole cigarette smoke from reference cigarettes results in the prompt (peak activity is 6 hrs), but fairly weak (similar to 2 fold), induction of murine pulmonary microsomal monooxygenase activity.
  • (16) Though the concept of phase, known also as focus, is a very helpful notion, its empirical foundation is yet very weak.
  • (17) DL 071 IT, a new potent non-selective beta-adrenergic blocking drug with intrinsic sympathomimetic activity and weak membrane stabilizing activity, was evaluated alone and in comparison with oxprenolol, in six volunteers, at rest and during an exercise test.
  • (18) A variety of weak acids at and below their pK(a) are potent inhibitors of transport in Penicillium chrysogenum.
  • (19) It added that the crisis had highlighted significant weaknesses in financial regulation, with further measures needed to strengthen supervision.
  • (20) The radioprotective action in E. coli ATCC 9637 of ascorbate added to media containing the weak sensitizer, tetracycline (effect described by Pittillo and Lucas (1967)), was found to be dependent on the presence of metal catalysts of the autoxidation of ascorbate.