1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. subtlest

Find the word definition

What is "subtlest"

Crossword clues for subtlest

subtlest
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subtlest

Subtle \Sub"tle\, a. [Compar. Subtler; superl. Subtlest.] [OE. sotil, subtil, OF. soutil, later subtil, F. subtil, L. subtilis; probably, originally, woven fine, and fr. sub under + tela a web, fr. texere to weave. See Text, and cf. Subtile.]

  1. Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe. ``A subtle traitor.''
    --Shak.

  2. Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.

  3. Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive.

    Things remote from use, obscure and subtle.
    --Milton.

  4. Smooth and deceptive. [Obs.]

    Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground [bowling ground].
    --Shak.

    Syn: Artful; crafty; cunning; shrewd; sly; wily.

    Usage: Subtle is the most comprehensive of these epithets and implies the finest intellectual quality. See Shrewd, and Cunning.

Wiktionary
subtlest

a. (en-superlative of: subtle)

Usage examples of "subtlest".

There were five of them: three women and two men, dressed formally in suits and dresses, in the dark threads of which brilliant designs were somehow concealed, so that the subtlest motion of the folds in the flame-light revealed a glamour that brought to Gal’s mind the iridescence of tropical butterflies.

There, the subtlest of winds blew, more distressing in its ingratiating way than any storm, for it seemed to whisper as it ran over the sand, its message just beyond the reach of comprehension.

For some two decades it had been a Game so fragile that it seemed as if it were really being played with glass beads, a seemingly glassy game almost empty of content, a seemingly coquettish and wanton pastime full of frail embellishments, an airy dance, sometimes a tightrope dance, with the subtlest rhythmic structure.

It is the ultimate, subtlest expression of our Castalian type of intellectuality.

Lincoln, you are the subtlest man I have ever come across in politics.