[syn: limber, supple]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Supple \Sup"ple\, v. i.
To become soft and pliant.
[1913 Webster]
The stones . . .
Suppled into softness as they fell. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. Yielding; compliant; not obstinate; submissive to
guidance; as, a supple horse.
[1913 Webster]
If punishment . . . makes not the will supple, it
hardens the offender. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
3. Bending to the humor of others; flattering; fawning;
obsequious. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Pliant; flexible; yielding; compliant; bending;
flattering; fawning; soft.
[1913 Webster]
The 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.
[1913 Webster]
The flesh therewith she suppled and did steep.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
2. To make compliant, submissive, or obedient.
[1913 Webster]
A mother persisting till she had bent her daughter's
mind and suppled her will. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
They should supple our stiff willfulness. --Barrow.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
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"
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