lacy

Everyday

1. Made of lace, or decorated with lace (a fine fabric with patterns of holes). tree →
2. Looking like lace: with a delicate pattern of holes or thin lines. tree →

In the lessons

In everyday life it describes clothes, curtains and tablecloths; in science and nature writing, frost, leaves eaten by caterpillars and snowflakes can look lacy. In stories it gives a delicate, pretty or old-fashioned picture. Phrases: lacy collar, lacy pattern, lacy frost.

Examples

• She wore a white dress with a lacy collar. tree →
• Frost made lacy patterns on the window. tree →
• The caterpillars left the cabbage leaves lacy and full of holes. tree →
• Grandma's lacy curtains let in the sunlight. tree →
• The fern had lacy green leaves. tree →
• Snowflakes look lacy under a magnifying glass. tree →

Note

Comparison: lacier, laciest (y → i). From «lace» (drop the «e», add «-y»). Pronounced LAY-see.