piquancy (peʻkans i)

[ A mind that tasted no piquancy in evil-speaking. George Eliot , Mill on the Flo , vii. 4. "How disturbed?" inquired Holgrave. "By things without, or by thoughts within?" "I cannot see his thoughts! How should I?" replied Phœbe, with simple piquancy . Hawthorne , Seven Gables, xii. Our American life is dreadfully barren of those elements of the social picturesque which give piquancy to anec Lowell , Study Windows, p. 91. dote. (c) Keenne ; sharpne ; tartne ; severity, as of remark or utterance. Commonly also satyrical taunts do owe their seeming piquancy , not to the speaker or his words, but to the subject and the hearers. Barrow , Sermons, I. xiv. piquant (pē'kant), a. [Formerly also picquant; He can marinate Fish, make Gellies; he is excellent for a picquant sauce. Howell , Letters, I. v. 36. There are vast mountains of a transparent rock extremely solid, and as piquant to the tongue as salt. Add is on , Remarks on Italy. 2. Of a smart, lively, racy, or sparkling nature; keenly interesting, or fitted to produce a sudden or keen interest; "taking": as, a piquant anecdote; a piquant manner; a piquant style of female beauty; a piquant hat. The most piquant pa ages in the lives of Mi Kennedy, Mi Davis, and Nancy Parsons. Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., II. 305. 3. That pierces or wounds, or is fitted to pierce or wound; stinging; sharp or cutting to the feelings; biting; keen; pungent; severe. Some think their wits have been asleep, except they dart out somewhat that is piquant , and to the quick. Bacon , Of Discourse. Men make their railleries as piquant as they can to wound the deeper. Government of the Tongue . "You can manifestly see their untruths in naming it a piquant letter," said Elizabeth, "for it has no sour or sharp word therein." Motley, United Netherlands, II. 240. =Syn. 3. Poignant, etc. See pungent. piquantly (pēʻkant-li), adv. In a piquant manner; with sharpne or pungency; tartly; smartly; livelily. Piquantly though wittily taunted. Locke .