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Animated, brisk motion; spirited rhythm; sprightliness. The movement, the lilt, and the subtle charm of the verse. F. Harrison.

He had such loyalty to the king as the law required. Clarendon. Not withstanding all the subtle bait With which those Amazons his love still craved, To his one love his loyalty he saved. Spenser.

at Megara, after the death of Socrates, by his disciples, and remarkable for its logical subtlety.

Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [Obs.] Clerks be full subtle and full quaint. Chaucer.

Craft; subtlety; cunning. [Obs.] Chaucer. R. of Glouces.

Hence: An extract from anything, containing its rarest virtue, or most subtle and essential constituent in a small quantity; pure or concentrated essence. Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep. Milton.

esting pictures or images of sense. To this poetry would be made precedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate. Milton.

Fig.: A subtle, treacherous, malicious person.

Resembling a serpent; having the shape or qualities of a serpent; subtle; winding or turning one way and the other, like a moving serpent; anfractuous; meandering; sinuous; zigzag; as, serpentine braid. Thy shape Like his, and color serpentine. Milton.

Freedom from subtlety or abstruseness; clearness; as, the simplicity of a doctrine; the simplicity of an explanation or a demonstration.

Plainly; without art or subtlety. Subverting worldly strong and worldly wise By simply meek. Milton.

feat so dexterous that the manner of performance escapes observation. The world hath many subtle sleights. Latimer.

Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily. For my sly wiles and subtle craftiness, The litle of the kingdom I possess. Spenser.

er said than done." Old Proverb. "As soon as it might be." Chaucer. She finished, and the subtle fiend his lore Soon learned. Milton.

Subtlety. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning; delicate; refined; subtle. [In this sense now commonly written subtle.] The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtile, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humor and so little wit in their literature. The genius of the Italians, on the contr…

The quality or state of being subtile; subtility; subtlety. The high orthodox subtilism of Duns Scotus. Milman.

Refinement; subtlety; extreme attenuation.

Refinement; extreme acuteness; subtlety. Intelligible discourses are spoiled by too much subtility in nice divisions. Locke.

In a subtle manner; slyly; artfully; cunningly. Thou seest how subtly to detain thee I devise. Milton.