Supple \Sup"ple\, v. i. To become soft and pliant. [1913 Webster]
The stones . . . Suppled into softness as they fell. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
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]
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]
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]
verb
1: make pliant and flexible; "These boots are not yet suppled
by frequent use"
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
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