deli

Attested since 1954. Clipping of delicatessen, from German Delikatessen, plural of Delikatesse (“delicacy, fine food”), from French délicatesse, derived from the adjective délicat, from Latin delicatus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: Delhi
• Rhymes: -ɛli

deli (plural delis)

1. (informal) A shop that sells cooked or prepared food ready for serving.

   Delis usually offer a broader, fresher menu than fast food chains.

   • 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

     The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile.

   • 2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: London Bridge”, in RAIL, number 948, page 31:

     Part of the 'western arcade' (as it's known) is lined with delis, cafes and other shops, giving it the feeling of a bazaar.

2. (informal) Food sold at a delicatessen.

• deli meat

• Diel, IDLE, Idle, Lide, diel, eild, idle, lied

Borrowed from Turkish deli (“mad, insane”), perhaps via Serbo-Croatian dèli (“brave”).^[1] Doublet of dalia.

• IPA^(key): [ˈdɛli]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧li
• Rhymes: -li

deli (comparative delibb, superlative legdelibb)

1. (rare, literary) stalwart, athletic (figure), well-built (person)

• deli in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• deli in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

deli

1. inflection of delir:
   1. first-person singular preterite indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

deli (Cyrillic spelling дели)

1. inflection of deliti:
   1. third-person singular present
   2. second-person singular imperative

Borrowed from English deli.

deli c

1. a simpler restaurant (selling lighter meals, for examples sandwiches and salads)
2. a deli shop or deli section (at a retail store)

Perhaps borrowed from Turkish deli.

deli (comparative mer deli, superlative mest deli)

1. (slang) stupid, retarded

• deli in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• Slangopedia

From Ottoman Turkish دلی (deli), from Proto-Turkic *tēlbe (“mad, crazy”). Doublet of Tilbe. Cognate of Turkmen däli, Azerbaijani dəli, Salar delli, and Tatar тиле (tile).

• IPA^(key): /deˈli/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i
• Hyphenation: de‧li

deli

1. crazy, mad, insane

• Like its English counterparts, deli can be used figuratively to refer to something highly unusual (either positively or negatively) or to someone afflicted with a mental condition.

• → Swedish: deli

• “deli”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu

deli

1. accusative singular of del

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛlɨ̞/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈdeːli/, /ˈdɛli/

deli

1. second-person singular present indicative/future of dal

deli

1. Soft mutation of teli.