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:
Our critic raved that “Carol Bove is an illusionist. Under her spell, steel is transformed into supple leather, sagging vinyl, crinkled plastic.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
That was all down to Styles' supple and powerful band.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
The finished egg salad should feel structured but supple.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2026
That makes me feel comfortable when it’s technical and not actually getting lost in this thing of like, “I need complete silence. My body needs to be supple and ready.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
Next, Torak washed the long back sinews he’d saved from the butchering, pounded them flat, then teased out the narrow fibers for thread: drying them and rubbing them in fat to make them supple.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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
They got Gib down, but I that was suppler, managed to jook among the young oak-trees and run what I was fit back to the troop.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
“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
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
Jessica Lange, one of the supplest film actresses of her generation, is the heavy favorite to win her first Tony.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2016
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
"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
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
In such boyish dreaming the soul learns to do and dare, hardens and supples itself, and puts on youthful beauty; for here is its palaestra.
From Heart of Man by Woodberry, George Edward
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
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
The first thing, then, to do is to get Penelope's neck suppled.
From Patroclus and Penelope A Chat in the Saddle by Dodge, Theodore Ayrault
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
The gymnastic of study is suppling faculties which will be indispensable hereafter.
From The Preacher and His Models The Yale Lectures on Preaching 1891 by Stalker, James
A. After the suppling of the neck and haunches.
From New Method of Horsemanship Including the Breaking and Training of Horses, with Instructions for Obtaining a Good Seat. by Baucher, F.
Louis was always suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft.
From Canadian Crusoes by Traill, Catharine Parr Strickland
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.
