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supple. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
supple, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
supple in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
supple you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English souple, from Old French souple, soupple (“soft, lithe, yielding”), from Latin supplic-, supplex (“suppliant, submissive, kneeling”), of uncertain formation. Either from sub + plicō (“bend”) (compare complex), or from sub + plācō (“placate”). More at sub-, placate.
Pronunciation
Adjective
supple (comparative suppler, superlative supplest)
- Pliant, flexible, easy to bend.
2011 July 25, Don Peck, “Can the Middle Class Be Saved?”, in The Atlantic:Global supply chains, meanwhile, have grown both tighter and more supple since the late 1990s—the result of improving information technology and of freer trade—making routine work easier to relocate.
- Lithe and agile when moving and bending.
supple joints
supple fingers
- (figuratively) Compliant; yielding to the will of others.
a supple horse
Derived terms
Translations
lithe and agile when moving and bending
Verb
supple (third-person singular simple present supples, present participle suppling, simple past and past participle suppled)
- (transitive, intransitive) To make or become supple.
1717, John Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, page 18:The Stones (a Miracle to Mortal View, / But long Tradition makes it paſs for true) / Did firſt the Rigour of their Kind expel, / And ſuppled into ſoftneſs, as they fell; […]
- (transitive) To make compliant, submissive, or obedient.
a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, Of contentment, patience and resignation to the will of God:They should supple our stiff wilfulness.
Translations
Anagrams
Latin
Verb
supplē
- second-person singular present active imperative of suppleō