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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
indelicate
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ an indelicate and tasteless comment
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And forgive me asking an indelicate question but how are you off for money - on the whole trip?
▪ It was indelicate to do otherwise.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Indelicate

Indelicate \In*del"i*cate\, a. [Pref. in- not + delicate: cf. F. ind['e]licat.] Not delicate; wanting delicacy; offensive to good manners, or to purity of mind; coarse; rude; as, an indelicate word or suggestion; indelicate behavior.
--Macaulay. -- In*del"i*cate*ly, adv.

Syn: Indecorous; unbecoming; unseemly; rude; coarse; broad; impolite; gross; indecent; offensive; improper; unchaste; impure; unrefined.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
indelicate

1742, "offensive to propriety," from in- (1) "not, opposite of" + delicate. Related: Indelicately.

Wiktionary
indelicate

a. 1 improper or immodest. 2 coarse or tasteless. 3 tactless or undiplomatic.

WordNet
indelicate
  1. adj. in violation of good taste even verging on the indecent; "an indelicate remark"; "an off-color joke" [syn: off-color, off-colour]

  2. lacking propriety and good taste in manners and conduct; "indecorous behavior" [syn: indecorous] [ant: decorous]

  3. verging on the indecent; "an indelicate proposition"

Usage examples of "indelicate".

His indelicate communication seemed to me the happiest compliment and the gladdest tidings that I could have expected from him.

Since the guest of honor was advanced in years, the courtesans and jesters were performing an indelicate burlesque of the ceremony for the dead.

I am a better physiognomist than you, and you must be quite certain that I have not acted thoughtlessly, for I never thought you capable, I will not say of crime, but even of an indelicate action.

Again we concur, as we do also with the dismissal of plaintiff's Third Cause of Action alleging fraud on the part of Kiester in his repeated changes of name to conceal his original access to the play under his original identity, since we find in defendant's Third Affirmative Defense of these name changes tor professional reasons' expressed in his own indelicate choice of words 'I'm a Jew the minute I step off the plane in LA.

He then proceeded to inform her plainly that Jones was in bed with a wench, and made use of an expression too indelicate to be here inserted.

It was just that they were to be spared the soilage implicit in the handling of money, which was still largely a masculine commodity and therefore an indelicate one for them.