Search the Dictionary

The quality or state of being subtile; thinness; fineness; as, the subtility of air or light.

Drawn out with too much subtilty; overnice; as, finedrawn speculations.

Subtilty of contrivance to gain a point; artifice; stratagem. This is the artificialest piece of finesse to persuade men into slavery. Milton.

A subtilty; an equivocation. [Obs.] Shak. By some strange quiddit or some wrested clause. Drayton.

Subtilty; nicety; quibble. "Nice, sharp quillets of the law." Shak.

A nice point; a subtilty; a debatable point. These are your quodlibets, but no learning. P. Fletcher.

To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language. "He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy." Atterbury.

s, the refinement or metals; refinement of ideas. The more bodies are of kin to spirit in subtilty and refinement, the more diffusive are they. Norris. From the civil war to this time, I doubt whether the corruptions in our language have not equaled its refinements. Swift.

Hence, characterized by excessive subtilty, or needlessly minute subdivisions; pedantic; formal.

Subtilty. [R.]