supple

5 definitions found

supple - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Supple \Sup"ple\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suppled (s[u^]p"p'ld);
     p. pr. & vb. n. Suppling (s[u^]p"pl[i^]ng).]
     1. To make soft and pliant; to render flexible; as, to supple
        leather.
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              The flesh therewith she suppled and did steep.
                                                    --Spenser.
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     2. To make compliant, submissive, or obedient.
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              A mother persisting till she had bent her daughter's
              mind and suppled her will.            --Locke.
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              They should supple our stiff willfulness. --Barrow.
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  Supple \Sup"ple\, v. i.
     To become soft and pliant.
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           The stones . . .
           Suppled into softness as they fell.      --Dryden.
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  Supple \Sup"ple\ (s[u^]p"p'l), a. [OE. souple, F. souple, from
     L. supplex suppliant, perhaps originally, being the knees.
     Cf. Supplicate.]
     1. Pliant; flexible; easily bent; as, supple joints; supple
        fingers.
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     2. Yielding; compliant; not obstinate; submissive to
        guidance; as, a supple horse.
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              If punishment . . . makes not the will supple, it
              hardens the offender.                 --Locke.
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     3. Bending to the humor of others; flattering; fawning;
        obsequious. --Addison.
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     Syn: Pliant; flexible; yielding; compliant; bending;
          flattering; fawning; soft.
          [1913 Webster]

supple - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  supple
      adj 1: moving and bending with ease [syn: lissome, lissom,
             lithe, lithesome, slender, supple, svelte,
             sylphlike]
      2: (used of e.g. personality traits) readily adaptable; "a
         supple mind"; "a limber imagination" [syn: limber,
         supple]
      3: (used of persons' bodies) capable of moving or bending freely
         [syn: limber, supple]
      v 1: make pliant and flexible; "These boots are not yet suppled
           by frequent use"

supple - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  145 Moby Thesaurus words for "supple":
     Machiavellian, Machiavellic, able to adapt, accommodating,
     acquiescent, acute, adaptable, adjustable, agile, all-around,
     alterable, alterative, ambidextrous, amphibious, arch, artful,
     astute, athletic, bendable, bending, cagey, canny, changeable,
     checkered, clever, complaisant, compliant, crafty, cunning, cute,
     deceitful, deep, deep-laid, designing, diplomatic, ductile,
     elastic, ever-changing, extensible, extensile, fabricable, facile,
     fawning, feline, fictile, flexible, flexile, flexuous, fluid,
     formable, formative, foxy, generally capable, giving, graceful,
     guileful, impermanent, impressible, impressionable, ingenious,
     ingratiating, insidious, inventive, kaleidoscopic, knowing,
     like putty, limber, lissome, lithe, lithesome, malleable,
     many-sided, metamorphic, mobile, modifiable, moldable, movable,
     mutable, nimble, nonuniform, obliging, obsequious, pawky,
     permutable, plastic, pliable, pliant, politic, protean, proteiform,
     ready, receptive, resilient, resourceful, responsive, rubbery,
     scheming, sensitive, sequacious, serpentine, servile, shapable,
     sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, slippery, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaky,
     sophistical, springy, stealthy, strategic, stretch, stretchy,
     submissive, subtile, subtle, susceptible, tactical, temporizing,
     timeserving, toadying, tractable, tractile, transient, transitory,
     trickish, tricksy, tricky, trimming, two-handed, unresistant,
     unresisting, variable, versatile, vulpine, wary, whippy, willowy,
     wily, wiry, yielding