finikin

comparative more finikin · superlative most finikin

1. datedExcessively dainty or fastidious.

   Have a great regard for the cleanliness of your hands, but do not be finikin about it.

   c. 1745, George Washington, edited by Moncure D. Conway, George Washington's Rules of Civility, published 1890

   2 more examples

   The bearded creatures are quite as eager for praise, quite as finikin over their toilettes, quite as proud of their personal advantages, quite as conscious of their powers of fascination, as any coquette in the world.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   Artifice and imitation reveal the finikin or uncertain soul as surely as deliberate bareness reveals a conscious austerity.

   1913, Henry W. Nevinson, Essays in Rebellion

plural finikins

1. alternativeAlternative form of finnikin