subtile
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of subtile
1325–75; Middle English < Latin subtīlis fine (originally of fabric), equivalent to sub- sub- + -tīlis, akin to tēla cloth on a loom, loom (< *tekslā, derivative of texere to weave; see text)
Example Sentences
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See Examples For:
Recent scientific discoveries have conferred upon man new powers of investigation, whereby nature has been made to reveal secrets so subtile that they never had been dreamt of before in philosophy.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 13, 2013
At Paris the Universe is seen, compos’d of Vortices of subtile Matter; but nothing like it is seen in London.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Of a more subtile wit and a finer grain was Harte, who did his best work as a humorist in California.
From A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by William Chauncey Bartlett
For Eutychius,149 bishop of that city, taught, that our body, in the glory of resurrection, would be impalpable, and more subtile than wind and air.
From Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Cuthbert Bede
Whence comes this man with his new poetry, which confounds the critics? and that man with his subtile wit borrowed from no school?
From A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by William Chauncey Bartlett
Something keener than philosophy, subtiler than Epicurus, pricked Fred, as Minnie vanished into the cloud of snowflakes.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 18, April, 1859 by Various
The heavens change by a subtiler movement than the precession of the equinoxes.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 23, September, 1859 by Various
That cause of motion he makes the Materia Subtilis; and the finer or subtiler that is, the better and fitter he conceives it to be to preserve Motion.
From Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 Giving some Accompt of the present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious in many considerable parts of the World by Henry Oldenburg
Is not the Heat of the warm Room convey'd through the Vacuum by the Vibrations of a much subtiler Medium than Air, which after the Air was drawn out remained in the Vacuum?
From Opticks or, a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Sir Isaac Newton
It is the subtiler nature of doubt to penetrate the heart more profoundly than confidence, and to underlie it.
From Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment 1898 by Edward Bellamy
What stuff is the man made of who is not coexistent in our thought with the purest and subtilest truth?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 by Various
In such spaces he may dream his dreams, tell his stories, and stamp on them for centuries his subtilest and divinest thoughts.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 by Various
He saw it was lovable, and he made it the theme of his noblest poems, his subtilest philosophies, and his highest Art.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 44, June, 1861 Creator by Various
But if you watch it attentively, you will find it ever changing, though with subtilest refinement, ever human, and true to the great laws of emotion.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 44, June, 1861 Creator by Various
Truth is a point; the subtilest and finest; harder than adamant; never to be broken, worn away, or blunted.
From Imaginary Conversations and Poems A Selection by Walter Savage Landor
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