subtile

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This flower represents a great certitude, without which few would be happy,--subtile, mysterious, inexplicable,--a great boon recognized alike by poets and moralists, Pagan and Christian; yea, identified not only with happiness, but human existence, and pertaining to the soul in its highest aspirations.

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Definitions (12)

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  1. adjective Subtle.

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Examples (50)

  • There are more things in that subtile, mystical enigma called in the Pali Nirwana , in the Birmese Niban , in the Siamese Niphan , than are dreamed of in our philosophy. —  THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS AT THE SIAMESE COURT
  • Very subtile, and indescribably stirring is this ancient music, with its various weird and prolonged cadences, and that solemn thundering boom enhancing the peculiar sweetness of the dirge as it rises and falls. —  THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS AT THE SIAMESE COURT
  • His mind was rather practical than subtile -- his genius prompted him to action, rather than to study, -- and the condition and necessities of the country, calling for the former rather than the latter character, readily reconciled him to a deficiency the importance of which he did not feel Pond Bluff now lies at the bottom of Lake Marion A. L., 1996 Chapter 3. —  The Life of Francis Marion
  • Theories of Poetry X. Prose and Verse: De Quincey Mr. Masson has succeeded in producing a series of criticisms in relation to creative literature which are satisfactory as well as subtile--which are not only ingenious, but which possess the rarer recommendation of being usually just.' —  The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] Introduction and Publisher's Advertising
  • But the man whose subtile, mysterious influence was already beginning to be recognised as a controlling factor in the party desired Seymour, and to force his nomination he met at Delmonico's, on the evening of the fourth day, Allen G. Thurman, George E. Pugh, Washington McLean, George W. McCook, and George W. Morgan, Ohio's most influential delegates, and there arranged the coup d'état that succeeded so admirably. —  A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French subtil, from Latin subtīlis, fine, delicate; see subtle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also subtil, subtyle; an altered form, to suit the L., of the earlier sotil, sutil, etc.; = French subtil = Spanish sutil = Portuguese subtil = Italian sottile, from Latin subtīlis, fine, thin, slender, delicate, perhaps from sub, under, + tela, a web, fabric: see tela, toil.
  2. from Middle English sotilen, from Old French soutilier, subtilier, from Middle Latin subtiliare, make thin, contrive cunningly, from Latin subtilis, thin, subtle: see subtile, adjective
 

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/ˈsətɪl/
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