supple
[suhp-uh l]
adjective, sup·pler, sup·plest.
bending readily without breaking or becoming deformed; pliant; flexible: a supple bough.
characterized by ease in bending; limber; lithe: supple movements.
characterized by ease, responsiveness, and adaptability in mental action.
compliant or yielding.
obsequious; servile.
verb (used with or without object), sup·pled, sup·pling.
to make or become supple.
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RELATED WORDS
resiliency, pliability, affability, plasticity, give, spring, pliancy, elasticity, bounce, complaisance, tractability, springiness, malleability, compliance, ductility, resilience, docility, flaccidity, adjustability, extensibility
Nearby words
- supper club,
- suppertime,
- suppiluliumas i,
- supplant,
- supplantation,
- supplejack,
- supplely,
- supplement,
- supplemental,
- supplemental air
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 fold1, bend (thus meaning “bent over”; cf. complex), or to plācāre to placate1 (thus meaning “in the attitude of a suppliant”); (v.) Middle English supplen to soften, derivative of the noun (compare Old French asoplir)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for suppleness
supple
adjective
verb
Word Origin for supple
C13: from Old French souple, from Latin supplex bowed
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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supple
c.1300, from Old French souple "pliant, flexible," from Gallo-Romance *supples, from Latin supplex (genitive supplicis) "submissive, humbly begging," literally "bending, kneeling down," thought to be an altered form of *supplacos "humbly pleading, appeasing," from sub "under" + placare "appease" (see placate).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper