Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A young sylph.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I want the real sylphide to return and sing to us as we lie back on our divans!

    Rat Catcher Young Geoffrion 2009

  • “A sylphide!” repeated Gedeonovsky, raising his eyes towards heaven.

    A House of Gentlefolk 2003

  • Indeed, a celebrated sylphide -- unsurpassed for the graceful airiness of her evolutions -- has been known to make the sunflower in the last scene bend with the additional weight of a roast pig, an apple pie, and sixteen _omelettes soufflées_ -- drink, including porter, in proportion.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, October 23, 1841 Various

  • To resume the walk around the town: Caper, after leaving the man who was employing the sylphide hod-carriers, called in at the shop were cigars were sold, and outside of which was a tin sign, on which was painted the papal coat-of-arms, and the usual words, indicating that the government monopolies, salt and tobacco, were for sale.

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various

  • So off we went together, he promising Mrs. Sparrow to return in time for dinner, and informing her that she was a sylphide, which caused her to say, "Go along!" in high delight.

    Rosin the Beau Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards 1896

  • "A sylphide!" repeated Gedeonovsky, raising his eyes towards heaven.

    A House of Gentlefolk Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev 1850

  • "Elle est la," he said, laying his jewelled hand on his richly-embroidered velvet glass buttons, "Je t'ai vue, je te benis, O ma sylphide, O mon ange!" and he dived into the thicket, and made his way back to his furnaces and saucepans.

    The History of Pendennis William Makepeace Thackeray 1837

  • Experts have warned that the algae poses a health risk as when it rots it produces hydrogen sylphide, which if trapped under a seaweed crust and suddenly released can prove as deadly as cyanide.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • He found his ethereal sylphide shrouded in a brown cashmere dressing-gown ingeniously befrilled, lying languidly stretched out upon a sofa in a dimly lighted boudoir.

    The Duchesse De Langeais Honor�� de Balzac 1824

  • The nun, wasted by yearning love, worn out with tears and fasting, prayer and vigils; the woman of nine-and-twenty, who had passed through heavy trials, was loved more passionately than the lighthearted girl, the woman of four-and-twenty, the sylphide, had ever been.

    The Duchesse De Langeais Honor�� de Balzac 1824

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