SUPPLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Supple

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/sˈəpəl/ Listen

adjective

Supple adj.

Pliant; flexible; easily bent; as, supple joints; supple fingers.

Yielding; compliant; not obstinate; submissive to guidance; as, a supple horse. "If punishment... makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender."

Bending to the humor of others; flattering; fawning; obsequious.

Synonyms: Pliant; flexible; yielding; compliant; bending; flattering; fawning; soft.

verb

Supple v. t. (past & past part. suppled; pres. part. suppling)

To make soft and pliant; to render flexible; as, to supple leather. "The flesh therewith she suppled and did steep."

To make compliant, submissive, or obedient. "A mother persisting till she had bent her daughter's mind and suppled her will." "They should supple our stiff willfulness."

Supple v. i. To become soft and pliant. "The stones... Suppled into softness as they fell."

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Etymology of 'Supple'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Supple" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the room. He was paler than usual, and kept his eyes on the floor; but his bearing was good, and he affected a resolute air which he rarely displayed in the presence of his father. The Count remained silent for some time; he gazed with a cold eye on the supple and delicate body of his son, the exquisite elegance of his form, his fine and delicate features, framed in the slightly darkened gold of his hair. Never had the beauty of his child filled the heart of his father with keener bitterness. As for Gilbert, ...

— Stories of Modern French Novels • Julian Hawthorne

... I know it white boy," replied the Krooman. "In the days when my limbs were supple I have hunted and fished there with others ...

— The Boy Aviators in Africa • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... death in a hundred ways and a hundred forms. His mind was ever occupied with reminiscences of Meriem and the happy years that they had spent together. He realized now to the full what she had meant to him. The sweet face, the tanned, supple, little body, the bright smile that always had welcomed his return from the ...

— The Son of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... had been considerable doubts how far the elder Beaufort would realise the expectations in which his nephew had been reared. Philip's younger brother had been much with the old gentleman, and appeared to be in high favour: this brother was a man in every respect the opposite to Philip—sober, supple, decorous, ambitious, with a face of smiles and ...

— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... on the steps of their house. Her head back, her supple strong throat arched with the passion of hating boredom, she devoured the starlight dim over the stale old ...

— Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man • Sinclair Lewis

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