Word Meanings - SUBTILE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. Thin; not dense or gross; rare; as, subtile air; subtile vapor; a subtile medium. 2. Delicately constituted or constructed; nice; fine; delicate; tenuous; finely woven. "A sotil twine's thread." Chaucer. More subtile web Arachne can not spin.

Additional info about word: SUBTILE

1. Thin; not dense or gross; rare; as, subtile air; subtile vapor; a subtile medium. 2. Delicately constituted or constructed; nice; fine; delicate; tenuous; finely woven. "A sotil twine's thread." Chaucer. More subtile web Arachne can not spin. Spenser. I do distinguish plain Each subtile line of her immortal face. Sir J. Davies. 3. Acute; piercing; searching. The slow disease and subtile pain. Prior. 5. Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning; delicate; refined; subtle. 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. Coleridge. The subtile influence of an intellect like Emerson's. Hawthorne. 5. Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; subtle; as, a subtile person; a Syn. -- Subtile, Acute. In acute the image is that of a needle's point; in subtile that of a thread spun out to fineness. The acute intellect pierces to its aim; the subtile intellect winds its way through obstacles. -- Sub"tile*ly, adv. -- Sub"tile*ness, n.

Related words: (words related to SUBTILE)

• VAPORATE
  To emit vapor; to evaporate.
• CONSTRUCT
  together, to construct; con- + struere to pile up, set in order. See 1. To put together the constituent parts of in their proper place and order; to build; to form; to make; as, to construct an edlifice. 2. To devise; to invent; to set in order;
• DENSE
  1. Having the constituent parts massed or crowded together; close; compact; thick; containing much matter in a small space; heavy; opaque; as, a dense crowd; a dense forest; a dense fog. All sorts of bodies, firm and fluid, dense and rare. Ray.
• CONSTITUTIONALIST
  One who advocates a constitutional form of government; a constitutionalist.
• VAPORY
  1. Full of vapors; vaporous. 2. Hypochondriacal; splenetic; peevish.
• CONSTITUTION
  1. The act or process of constituting; the action of enacting, establishing, or appointing; enactment; establishment; formation. 2. The state of being; that form of being, or structure and connection of parts, which constitutes and characterizes
• VAPORIFORM
  Existing in a vaporous form or state; as, steam is a vaporiform substance.
• CONSTRUCTIVELY
  In a constructive manner; by construction or inference. A neutral must have notice of a blockade, either actually by a formal information, or constructively by notice to his government. Kent.
• THREAD
  wire, thread, OHG. drat, Icel. a thread, Sw. tråd, Dan. traad, and 1. A very small twist of flax, wool, cotton, silk, or other fibrous substance, drawn out to considerable length; a compound cord consisting of two or more single yarns doubled,
• THREADFISH
  The cutlass fish. A carangoid fish having the anterior rays of the soft dorsal and anal fins prolonged in the form of long threads.
• FINELY
  In a fine or finished manner.
• DENSELY
  In a dense, compact manner.
• CONSTITUTIVE
  1. Tending or assisting to constitute or compose; elemental; essential. An ingredient and constitutive part of every virtue. Barrow. 2. Having power to enact, establish, or create; instituting; determining. Sir W. Hamilton.
• VAPOR
  Any substance in the gaseous, or aëriform, state, the condition of which is ordinarily that of a liquid or solid. Note: The term vapor is sometimes used in a more extended sense, as identical with gas; and the difference between the two is not
• WOVEN
  p. p. of Weave. Woven paper, or Wove paper, writing paper having an even, uniform surface, without watermarks.
• THREADER
  1. A device for assisting in threading a needle. 2. A tool or machine for forming a thread on a screw or in a nut.
• THREADFIN
  Any one of several species of fishes belonging to Polynemus and allied genera. They have numerous long pectoral filaments.
• VAPOROUS
  1. Having the form or nature of vapor. Holland. 2. Full of vapors or exhalations. Shak. The warmer and more vaporous air of the valleys. Derham. 3. Producing vapors; hence, windy; flatulent. Bacon. The food which is most vaporous and perspirable
• CONSTRUCTIVE
  1. Having ability to construct or form; employed in construction; as, to exhibit constructive power. The constructive fingers of Watts. Emerson. 2. Derived from, or depending on, construction or interpretation; not directly expressed, but inferred.
• VAPORATION
  The act or process of converting into vapor, or of passing off in vapor; evaporation.
• EVAPORATION
  See VAPORIZATION (more info) 1. The process by which any substance is converted from a liquid state into, and carried off in, vapor; as, the evaporation of water, of ether, of camphor. 2.
• INTWINE
  To twine or twist into, or together; to wreathe; as, a wreath of flowers intwined.
• EVAPORATOR
  An apparatus for condensing vegetable juices, or for drying fruit by heat.
• DOUBLETHREADED
  Having two screw threads instead of one; -- said of a screw in which the pitch is equal to twice the distance between the centers of adjacent threads. (more info) 1. Consisting of two threads twisted together; using two threads.
• ENTWINEMENT
  A twining or twisting together or round; union. Bp. Hacket.
• INDELICATE
  Not delicate; wanting delicacy; offensive to good manners, or to purity of mind; coarse; rude; as, an indelicate word or suggestion; indelicate behavior. Macaulay. -- In*del"i*cate*ly, adv. Syn. -- Indecorous; unbecoming; unseemly; rude; coarse;
• EVAPOROMETER
  An instrument for ascertaining the quantity of a fluid evaporated in a given time; an atmometer.
• RECONSTRUCT
  To construct again; to rebuild; to remodel; to form again or anew. Regiments had been dissolved and reconstructed. Macaulay.
• INGROSS
  See ENGROSS
• INTERTWINE
  To unite by twining one with another; to entangle; to interlace. Milton.