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.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Subtle \Sub"tle\, a. [Compar. Subtler; superl. Subtlest.]
[OE. sotil, subtil, OF. soutil, later subtil, F. subtil, L.
subtilis; probably, originally, woven fine, and fr. sub under
+ tela a web, fr. texere to weave. See Text, and cf.
Subtile.]
1. Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; --
applied to persons; as, a subtle foe. "A subtle traitor."
--Shak.
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2. Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle
stratagem.
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3. Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing
distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons;
as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous;
insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of
the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle
intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of
thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive.
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Things remote from use, obscure and subtle.
--Milton.
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4. Smooth and deceptive. [Obs.]
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Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground [bowling
ground]. --Shak.
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Syn: Artful; crafty; cunning; shrewd; sly; wily.
Usage: Subtle is the most comprehensive of these epithets and
implies the finest intellectual quality. See Shrewd,
and Cunning.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
subtle
adj 1: be difficult to detect or grasp by the mind; "his whole
attitude had undergone a subtle change"; "a subtle
difference"; "that elusive thing the soul" [syn: elusive]
2: faint and difficult to analyze; "subtle aromas"
3: able to make fine distinctions; "a subtle mind"
4: working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way;
"glaucoma is an insidious disease"; "a subtle poison"
[syn: insidious, pernicious]
WordNet (r) 2.0
288 Moby Thesaurus words for "subtle":
Byzantine, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, abstruse, accurate, acute,
adulterated, air-built, airy, analytic, analytical, appreciative,
arcane, arch, artful, astute, attentive, attenuate, attenuated,
balled up, boyish, cagey, calculating, canny, casuistic,
chimerical, civilized, clever, close, cloud-built, complex,
complicated, concealed, confounded, confused, conscientious,
constant, convoluted, correct, crabbed, crafty, creamy, critical,
cultivated, cultured, cunning, cut, cute, daedal, dainty,
deceitful, deceptive, deep, deep-laid, delicate, demanding,
designing, detailed, devious, dexterous, diaphanous, differential,
dilute, diluted, diplomatic, direct, discriminate, discriminating,
discriminative, distinctive, distinguishing, dreamlike, eggshell,
elaborate, elegant, elusive, embrangled, entangled, ethereal, even,
exact, exacting, exigent, express, exquisite, faint, faithful,
fanciful, fastidious, fatuitous, fatuous, feline, fine, fine-drawn,
finespun, finical, finicking, finicky, flat, flimsy, fouled up,
foxy, frail, fussy, gaseous, gauzy, girlish, gloss, gossamer,
gossamery, graceful, gracile, gracious, guileful, hairline,
hairsplitting, hidden, illusory, imaginary, implicated, inerrable,
inerrant, infallible, ingenious, insidious, insubstantial,
intricate, inventive, involuted, involved, iridescent, knotted,
knowing, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, lacy, light, loused up,
many-faceted, mathematical, matted, mazy, meandering, mellow,
messed up, meticulous, micrometrically precise, microscopic,
minute, misty, mixed up, mother-of-pearl, mucked up, multifarious,
nacreous, narrow, nebulous, nice, obscure, opalescent, pale,
papery, particular, pastel, patinaed, pawky, pearly, perplexed,
phantomlike, pinpoint, polished, politic, precise, precisianistic,
precisionistic, profound, punctilious, punctual, quiet, ramified,
rare, rarefied, ratiocinative, ready, recondite, refined,
religious, religiously exact, remote, resourceful, rigid, rigorous,
roundabout, sad, scheming, scientific, scientifically exact,
screwed up, scrupulous, scrutinizing, selective, semigloss,
sensitive, serpentine, severe, shadowy, sharp, shifty, shrewd,
simple, skillful, slender, slenderish, slick, slight, slight-made,
slim, slimmish, slimy, slinky, slippery, sly, small, smarmy, smart,
smooth, snaky, snarled, sneaky, sober, soft, soft-colored,
soft-hued, softened, somber, sophistical, sophisticated,
spirituous, square, stealthy, strategic, strict, subdued, subtile,
supple, svelte, sweet, sylphlike, tactful, tactical, tangled,
tangly, tender, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun,
thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike, trickish, tricksy,
tricky, twisted, uncompact, uncompressed, underhanded, undeviating,
unerring, unreal, unsubstantial, vague, vaporous, veiled, vulpine,
wary, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, willowy,
wily, windy, wiredrawn, wispy
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
Subtle, KY
Zip code(s): 42129
U.S. Gazetteer (1990)
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