Subtile

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: sub=tile

CIDE DICTIONARY

Subtile, a. [L. subtilis. See Subtile.].

•  Thin; not dense or gross; rare; as, subtile air; subtile vapor; a subtile medium.  [1913 Webster]
•  Delicately constituted or constructed; nice; fine; delicate; tenuous; finely woven.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "More subtile web Arachne can not spin."  [1913 Webster]

  "I do distinguish plain
  Each subtile line of her immortal face."  [1913 Webster]
•  Acute; piercing; searching.  [1913 Webster]

  "The slow disease and subtile pain."  [1913 Webster]
•  Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning; delicate; refined; subtle.  [1913 Webster]
•  Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; subtle; as, a subtile person; a subtile adversary; a subtile scheme.  [1913 Webster]

  "The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtile, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humor and so little wit in their literature. The genius of the Italians, on the contrary, is acute, profound, and sensual, but not subtile; hence what they think to be humorous, is merely witty."  [1913 Webster]

  "The subtile influence of an intellect like Emerson's."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Subtile, Acute.

THESAURUS

Subtile

Byzantine, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, acute, adulterated, air-built, airy, arch, artful, astute, attenuate, attenuated, cagey, calculating, canny, chimerical, clever, cloud-built, crafty, cunning, cut, cute, dainty, deceitful, deep, deep-laid, delicate, designing, devious, dilute, diluted, diplomatic, dreamlike, ethereal, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous, feline, fine, flimsy, foxy, gaseous, gossamery, guileful, illusory, imaginary, ingenious, insidious, insubstantial, inventive, knowing, pawky, phantomlike, politic, rare, rarefied, ready, resourceful, scheming, serpentine, shadowy, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, slight, slippery, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaky, sophistical, spirituous, stealthy, strategic, subtle, supple, tactical, tenuous, thin, thinned, thinned-out, trickish, tricksy, tricky, uncompact, uncompressed, unreal, unsubstantial, vaporous, vulpine, wary, watered, watered-down, wily, windy

ROGET THESAURUS

Subtile

Levity

N levity, lightness, imponderability, buoyancy, volatility, feather, dust, mote, down, thistle, down, flue, cobweb, gossamer, straw, cork, bubble, balloon, float, buoy, ether, air, leaven, ferment, barm, yeast, lighter-than-air balloon, helium balloon, hydrogen balloon, hot air balloon, convection, thermal draft, thermal, light, subtile, airy, imponderous, imponderable, astatic, weightless, ethereal, sublimated, gossamery, suberose, suberous, uncompressed, volatile, buoyant, floating, portable, light as a feather, light as a thistle, light as air, lighter than air, rise like a balloon, float like a balloon.

Rarity

N rarity, tenuity, absence of solidity, subtility, subtilty, subtlety, sponginess, compressibility, rarefaction, expansion, dilatation, inflation, subtilization, vaporization, evaporation, diffusion, gassification, ether, rare, subtile, thin, fine, tenuous, compressible, flimsy, slight, light, cavernous, spongy, rarefied, unsubstantial, uncompact, incompressed, rarefiable.

Texture

N texture, structure (form), organization, anatomy, frame, mold, fabric, construction, framework, carcass, architecture, stratification, cleavage, substance, stuff, compages, parenchyma, constitution, staple, organism, organography, osteology, myology, splanchnology, neurology, angiography, adeology, angiography, adenography, texture, surface texture, intertexture, contexture, tissue, grain, web, surface, warp and woof, warp and weft, tooth, nap, flatness (smoothness), fineness of grain, coarseness of grain, dry goods, silk, satin, muslin, burlap, histology, structural, organic, anatomic, anatomical, textural, textile, fine grained, coarse grained, fine, delicate, subtile, gossamery, filmy, silky, satiny, coarse, homespun, rough, gritty, smooth, smooth as silk, smooth as satin.