English Online Dictionary. What means subtle? What does subtle mean?
English
Alternative forms
- subtil, subtile, suttle (all obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English sotil, soubtil, subtil, borrowed from Old French soutil, subtil, from Latin subtīlis (“fine, thin, slender, delicate”); probably, originally, “woven fine”, and from sub (“under”) + tēla (“a web”), from texere (“to weave”). Displaced native Old English smēag (literally “creeping”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsʌt(ə)l/, [ˈsʌɾɫ̩], enPR: sŭt'(ə)l
- Rhymes: -ʌtəl
Adjective
subtle (comparative subtler or more subtle, superlative subtlest or most subtle)
- Hard to grasp; not obvious or easily understood.
- Antonym: simple
- Barely noticeable, not obvious, indistinct.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:indistinct
- Antonyms: distinct; see also Thesaurus:distinct
- 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem. Demonstrating the Existence and Providence of a God. In Seven Books, book I, London: Printed for S. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little-Britain; and J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's Head over-against Catherine-Street in the Strand, OCLC 731619916; 5th edition, Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, for G. Risk, G. Ewing, and W. Smith, in Dame's-street, 1727, OCLC 728300884, page 7:
- The mighty Magnet from the Center darts / This ſtrong, tho' ſubtile Force, thro' all the Parts: / Its active Rays ejaculated thence, / Irradiate all the wide Circumference.
- (of a thing) Cleverly contrived.
- (of a person or animal) Cunning, skillful.
- Synonyms: crafty, cunning, skillful
- Insidious.
- Synonyms: deceptive, malicious
- Tenuous; rarefied; of low density or thin consistency.
- (obsolete) Refined; exquisite.
Derived terms
Translations
References
- “subtle”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “subtle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “subtle”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
Anagrams
- bluest, butles, sublet, bustle, Bustle, bluets