2 definitions found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Subtile \Sub"tile\, a. [L. subtilis. See {Subtile}.] 1. Thin; not dense or gross; rare; as, subtile air; subtile vapor; a subtile medium. [1913 Webster] 2. Delicately constituted or constructed; nice; fine; delicate; tenuous; finely woven. "A sotil [subtile] twine's thread." --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] More subtile web Arachne can not spin. --Spenser. [1913 Webster] I do distinguish plain Each subtile line of her immortal face. --Sir J. Davies. [1913 Webster] 3. Acute; piercing; searching. [1913 Webster] The slow disease and subtile pain. --Prior. [1913 Webster] 5. Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning; delicate; refined; subtle. [In this sense now commonly written {subtle}.] [1913 Webster] The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtile, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humor and so little wit in their literature. The genius of the Italians, on the contrary, is acute, profound, and sensual, but not subtile; hence what they think to be humorous, is merely witty. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster] The subtile influence of an intellect like Emerson's. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster] 5. Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; subtle; as, a subtile person; a subtile adversary; a subtile scheme. [In this sense now commonly written {subtle}.] [1913 Webster] Syn: {Subtile}, {Acute}. Usage: In acute the image is that of a needle's point; in subtile that of a thread spun out to fineness. The acute intellect pierces to its aim; the subtile (or subtle) intellect winds its way through obstacles. [1913 Webster] -- {Sub"tile*ly}, adv. -- {Sub"tile*ness}, n. [1913 Webster] From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]: 96 Moby Thesaurus words for "subtile": Byzantine, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, acute, adulterated, air-built, airy, arch, artful, astute, attenuate, attenuated, cagey, calculating, canny, chimerical, clever, cloud-built, crafty, cunning, cut, cute, dainty, deceitful, deep, deep-laid, delicate, designing, devious, dilute, diluted, diplomatic, dreamlike, ethereal, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous, feline, fine, flimsy, foxy, gaseous, gossamery, guileful, illusory, imaginary, ingenious, insidious, insubstantial, inventive, knowing, pawky, phantomlike, politic, rare, rarefied, ready, resourceful, scheming, serpentine, shadowy, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, slight, slippery, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaky, sophistical, spirituous, stealthy, strategic, subtle, supple, tactical, tenuous, thin, thinned, thinned-out, trickish, tricksy, tricky, uncompact, uncompressed, unreal, unsubstantial, vaporous, vulpine, wary, watered, watered-down, wily, windy
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