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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Very beautiful, too, was their copy of Guido's Aurora, and yet less difficult than the other, the coloring being at once less subtile and more brilliant.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Howe, Julia Ward
Its subtile veins, its vivid sheen, Seem fragment of a god's array.
From The Star-Treader and other poems by Smith, Clark Ashton
Every plant and shrub will have some part in a subtile and soothing ministry; and then, if ever, it will occur to you that this is a mellow old world after all.
From A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by Bartlett, William Chauncey
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
Gradually he wove a drama round it; line by line it took shape for a book that was to be subtiler, finer and more sincere than anything that he had ever written.
From The Education of Eric Lane by McKenna, Stephen
No, his temperament needed a subtiler atmosphere than this, rarer essence than mere brutal freedom.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 50, December, 1861 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 Oldenburg, Henry
No, his temperament needed a subtiler atmosphere than this, rarer essence than mere brutal freedom The East, the Old World, was his proper sphere for self-development.
From Margret Howth, a Story of To-day by Davis, Rebecca Harding
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
A book might be written on the Stratagems of Literature, as Frontinus has composed one on War, and among its subtilest heroes we might place this great poet.
From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Disraeli, Isaac
It was this mastery of the interior life, this impassioned voicing of its subtilest secrets, that made Rousseau so irresistibly attractive to women.
From The Friendships of Women by Alger, William Rounseville
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 Lord, John
Said to us, during the past season, the subtilest thinker of Great Britain,—"I must send to America whatever I wish to put in print, unless I pay for its publication from my own pocket."
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 12, October, 1858 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
