Subtile definition

Subtile





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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.
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     2. Delicately constituted or constructed; nice; fine;


        delicate; tenuous; finely woven. "A sotil [subtile]
        twine's thread." --Chaucer.
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              More subtile web Arachne can not spin. --Spenser.
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              I do distinguish plain
              Each subtile line of her immortal face. --Sir J.
                                                    Davies.
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     3. Acute; piercing; searching.
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              The slow disease and subtile pain.    --Prior.
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     5. Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning;
        delicate; refined; subtle. [In this sense now commonly
        written {subtle}.]
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              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.
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              The subtile influence of an intellect like
              Emerson's.                            --Hawthorne.
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     5. Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; subtle; as, a subtile
        person; a subtile adversary; a subtile scheme. [In this
        sense now commonly written {subtle}.]
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     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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