lissom
adjUS, UK /ˈlɪsəm/
Etymology From Middle English lithsum, equivalent to lithe + -some. Doublet of lithesome.
1
Flexible and graceful in movement; lithe.
- Now, our country lads, [...] are so much better made, so much more athletic, and yet so much lissomer—to use a Hampshire phrase, which deserves at least to be good English.1824, Mary Russell Mitford, “A Country Cricket-match”, in Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery, London: G[eorge] and W. B. Whittaker, […], →OCLC, page 147:
- A brig you see, sir, is much more laboursome in a gale of wind. A Schooner is much lissomer built.1838, “Conversation V. King of Spain’s Journey—Difference of Ships.”, in Conversations of a Father with His Children, 5th edition, volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, page 41:
4 more examples
- [T]he most striking object was the long array of shoes and boots of all lengths, breadths, and thicknesses; high-lows, low-highs, lace-ups, mud-boots, waders, and snow-boots. If they were not waterproof, as they professed to be, the only question was, as it appeared to me, how they ever got dry and lissome again, when they were once wet.1841, [Joseph Thomas James Hewlett], chapter I, in Theodore [Edward] Hook, editor, Peter Priggins, the College Scout. … In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 29–30:
- [Y]onder sly old trout has seen too much of us; there, taking advantage of an escort of the smaller fry, he's off while we speak; and one flap of his lissom tail has carried him ten yards away: [...]1843, “M. F. T.”, “Country Pleasures; and therein Chiefly, of Angling and Fly-fishing”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XIII, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 261:
- Straight, but as lissome as a hazel wand; / Her eyes a bashful azure, and her hair / In gloss and hue the chestnut, when the shell / Divides threefold to show th'fruit within.1855, Alfred Tennyson, “The Brook; an Idyl”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 105:
- [A] robe / Of samite without price, that more exprest / Than hid her, clung about her lissome limbs, / In colour like the satin-shining palm / On sallows in the windy gleams of March: [...]1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 104–105:
- Derived terms
- lissomly, lissomely, lissomness, lissomeness