delect

present singular third person delects · participle present delecting · participle past delected · past delected

1. uncommonTo delight.

   For they were gretely delected and enioyed togiders

   1510 September 14, [Andrew Chertsey], Ihesus. The Floure of the Commaundementes of God with Many Examples and Auctorytees Extracte and Drawen as Well of Holy Scryptures as of Other Doctours and Good Auncient Faders / the Whiche Is Moche Vtyle and Prouffytable vnto All People., London: […] Wynkyn de Worde, folio CCxxviii, recto

   5 more examples

   For (many tymes) yᵗ thynge that doeth delect and please: is iudged or supposed profytable / althoughe in dede (moche contrary) it do noy and hurte.

   1525 November 28, Rycharde Whytford, The Rule of Saynt Augustyne, Bothe in Latyn and Englysshe, with Two Exposicyons. And Also the Same Rule Agayn Onely in Englysshe without Latyn or Exposicyon, London: […] Wynkyn de Worde

   Yf you fortune to come where they ben / & begyn somwhat to delecte in theyr maters: I aduyse you dissimule & take vpon you yt you herde thẽ not / ne set any thynge therby.

   1530 December 20, Rycharde Whytforde, A Werke for Housholders / or for Them Yᵗ Haue the Gydynge or Gouernaunce of Any Company. […], London: […] Wynkyn de Worde

   The thing in this lyf that delects indures bot a moment.

   1588, A. King, transl., Canisius’ Catech., section 211; quoted in “† Delect, v.”, in James A[ugustus] H[enry] Murray [et al.], editors, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume III (D–E), London: Clarendon Press, 1884–1928, →OCLC, page 156, column 1

   And if in the vast Petegrination of Books, it may please God, that but one delected heart may by any good word in It, be a little lifted vp; […]

   1630, I. C., A Handkercher for Parents Wet Eyes vpon the Death of Children. A Consolatory Letter to a Friend., London: […] E[liz.] A[llde] for Michael Sparkes, […]

   Returned home, with superfluous lassitude, they delect themselves with their extreme usefulness, relate all they have said or done in the day, to-morrow to renew their impertinent futility.

   1809, Sir Brooke Boothby; [6th] Bar[one]t, Fables and Satires, with a Preface on the Esopean Fable, volume II, Edinburgh: […] George Ramsay and Company, for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; and Constable, Hunter, Park, and Hunter, London, page 219