Definition of "exquisite" []

• Characterized by intricate and beautiful design or execution: an exquisite chalice. (adjective)
• Of such beauty or delicacy as to arouse intense delight: an exquisite sunset. See Synonyms at delicate. (adjective)
• Excellent; flawless: plays the piano with exquisite technique. (adjective)
• Acutely perceptive or discriminating: "Blind dolphins have been known to survive in the wild, guided by exquisite acoustic images of their prey” ( Kenneth Browser). (adjective)
• Intense; keen: suffered exquisite pain. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "President's picture, full of grace and life, and richly meriting the term exquisite: nothing can be finer than the dark luxuriant hair contrasted with the alabaster delicacy and elegance of the features; the eyes too beam with benignant expressiveness."
• "The Big House was of sturdy concrete, but here was marble in exquisite delicacy."
• "We had attended Morning Chant and were now seated for breakfast, disheartened but not surprised that the early Greys had already taken the bacon, and it remained only in exquisite odor."