supple
Americanadjective
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bending readily without breaking or becoming deformed; pliant; flexible.
a supple bough.
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characterized by ease in bending; limber; lithe.
supple movements.
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characterized by ease, responsiveness, and adaptability in mental action.
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compliant or yielding.
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obsequious; servile.
verb (used with or without object)
adjective
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bending easily without damage
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capable of or showing easy or graceful movement; lithe
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mentally flexible; responding readily
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disposed to agree, sometimes to the point of servility
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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supplesimple
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supplessimple
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have suppledperfect
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has suppledperfect
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am supplingprogressive
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are supplingprogressive
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is supplingprogressive
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have been supplingperfect progressive
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has been supplingperfect progressive
Past
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suppledsimple
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had suppledperfect
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was supplingprogressive
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were supplingprogressive
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had been supplingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of supple
1250–1300; (adj.) Middle English souple flexible, compliant < Old French: soft, yielding, lithe < Latin supplic- (stem of supplex ) submissive, suppliant, equivalent to sup- sup- + -plic-, variously explained as akin to plicāre to fold 1, bend (thus meaning “bent over”; cf. complex), or to plācāre to placate 1 (thus meaning “in the attitude of a suppliant”); (v.) Middle English supplen to soften, derivative of the noun (compare Old French asoplir )
Explanation
Something or someone that is supple bends and moves easily, like a contortionist at a circus sideshow. If you can wrap your legs around your neck, you most likely have a supple body. Supple is often used as an adjective describing a body — such as a dancer’s; a fabric — such as soft leather; or a sound — such as an accomplished singer’s voice. This makes for a strange supple family, but all of its members can move with ease and flexibility. More idiomatically, supple can also be used to describe a mind. In this sense, it does not mean “easily brainwashed,” but has a more positive association with the open-mindedness of free-thinkers.
Vocabulary lists containing supple
The Hunger Games
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Romeo and Juliet
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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:
That tower is extraordinary, with its deep-set curved windows arrayed like a supple column of vertebrae.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
That was all down to Styles' supple and powerful band.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
Indeed, his playing is as supple and inventive as ever.
From Salon ● May 12, 2026
Its supple leather, fluid silhouette and three sizes allow it to slip effortlessly and intimately into the hand, over the shoulder or across the body.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
Over the next months, he taught me how to remove stains, how to ensure that leather was supple.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
The aviation giant said their suppler informed them the installation of fittings on the rear of the plane did not follow the standard.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2023
With so much cash waiting to be spent, let’s make sure those resources result in more trained workers, more efficient institutions and able bureaucracies, sharper strategies, increased innovation and suppler supply chains.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 24, 2021
Mitchell’s prose is suppler and richer than ever, and his ability to conjure a historical milieu he never actually experienced does not falter.
From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2020
Further "sharp practices" included retrospective discounts, where firms seek to apply discounts to outstanding money owed to a suppler, late payment and discounts for paying on time, FSB said.
From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2014
Her fingers were suppler than her mother's, and she scarcely spoke except to answer the latter's querulous questions.
From The Burial of the Guns by Page, Thomas Nelson
“Energy” seems to operate on wires; it’s taut minimalism, with the supplest layering of sub-bass tones.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2022
It was through dramatic poetry that Plummer discovered his voice, which he developed into one of the supplest instruments of the modern stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2021
I stand in awe of Rylance's genius, but the play, written by his wife, Claire van Kampen, struck me as a candle-lighted diversion for the world's supplest barnstormer.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2018
It’s a counterintuitive fact that a player with the supplest shot in the NBA, whose overarching quality is feel, has the hands and work habits of a woodchopper.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2016
Rajesh had once been the most promising of the brothers—the nimblest, the supplest, the most charismatic, the most energetic, the most beloved and idolized by my father and his family.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
They make razors and hair products and have donated a ton of supples to Astor Place Hair, so we’re discussing ways to partner on video profiles.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2021
The great use of longeing is, not that it supples your horse—it is a farce to suppose that—but that, next to leading, it is the easiest act of obedience which you can exact from him.
From Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece or, Common Sense and Common Errors in Common Riding by Greenwood, George
"He supples all and discommends none, except where his commendations might crosse the company, and then he holds his peace,"—after the words "what is civil."
From Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters by Earle, John
I propose to rub old man Jacob into Billy by way of liniment until he supples, yes, and works.
From A Man in the Open by Pocock, Roger
Backing correctly supples the horse, and adds grace and precision to his natural motions.
From New Method of Horsemanship Including the Breaking and Training of Horses, with Instructions for Obtaining a Good Seat. by Baucher, F.
The human neurons continued to mature as the mouse brain suppled them with blood vessels.
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2022
Responders weighed the risks versus benefits and decided to give the VSV-ZEBOV vaccine, which is suppled by Merck and stockpiled by the WHO, to children as young as 1 year old.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 13, 2018
Middlesbrough players congratulate Stuani who suppled the cross and turned in for an own goal by Bellusci.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 27, 2015
If she is naturally lithe and has been well suppled on foot, the task will be considerably easier.
From The Barb and the Bridle A Handbook of Equitation for Ladies, and Manual of Instruction in the Science of Riding, from the Preparatory Suppling Exercises by Moustache, Vielle
It wasn't flattery; her good faith was manifest in her face and voice; and Selby suppled under it like a stroked cat.
From Those Who Smiled And Eleven Other Stories by Gibbon, Perceval
Dalén invented a neat little device that would, when heated by the sun, pinch off the gas suppling a lighthouse’s beacon.
From Slate ● Dec. 27, 2016
There are vehicles of every size and description booming down the roadway, in and out of the city, like giant human arteries suppling NYC with energy and nutrients.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2016
I at first considered the neck alone as the source of these resistances, and exercised myself in suppling the animal by flexions, repeated in every direction.
From New Method of Horsemanship Including the Breaking and Training of Horses, with Instructions for Obtaining a Good Seat. by Baucher, F.
There are a great many other suppling practices, but the above, varied occasionally by the use of the dumb-bells, will be found sufficient for all practical purposes.
From The Barb and the Bridle A Handbook of Equitation for Ladies, and Manual of Instruction in the Science of Riding, from the Preparatory Suppling Exercises by Moustache, Vielle
The result of the suppling of the neck is a soft mouth under all conditions.
From Patroclus and Penelope A Chat in the Saddle by Dodge, Theodore Ayrault
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.
