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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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
Sub′tilism, the quality of being subtile; Sub′tilty, state or quality of being subtile: fineness: extreme acuteness: cunning.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Ladislaus, after a considerable loss of blood and a somewhat lengthy confinement in bed, looked pale and miserable, but his countenance had acquired a more subtile expression and actually become handsome.
From Whirlpools A Novel of Modern Poland by Henryk Sienkiewicz
She was by no means sure if it were her own youth that had called her, conspiring in some subtile way with the push of leaves and grasses out toward the strengthened sunshine.
From An Ambitious Woman A Novel by Edgar Fawcett
What if, through communication with subtiler organisms than my own, I could reach at a single bound the goal, which perhaps a life of agonizing mental toil would never enable me to attain?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 03, January, 1858 by Various
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
We rather think that far subtiler things than the doctrine of association had from of old been familiar to him.
From Life of Robert Burns by Thomas Carlyle
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
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
She took yellow honeysuckles from a vase of massed amethyst and began to weave them in her yellow hair,—humming a tune, the while, that was full of the subtilest curves of sound.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 67, May, 1863 by Various
He was the farthest reach of subtlety compatible with an individual self,--the subtilest of authors, and only just within the possibility of authorship.
From Beacon Lights of History, Volume 13 Great Writers; Dr Lord's Uncompleted Plan, Supplemented with Essays by Emerson, Macaulay, Hedge, and Mercer Adam by John Lord
This is a truth that takes all the sting out of Lord Bacon's observation that "against Atheists the very savages take part with the very subtilest philosophers."
From Flowers of Freethought (Second Series) by G. W. (George William) Foote
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
As for me, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are now only the subtilest imaginable essences, which would not stain the morning sky.
From A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau
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