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supple

adj, verb — 6 senses

supple

adj

UK, US /ˈsʌpəl/

Etymology From Middle English souple, from Old French souple, soupple (“soft, lithe, yielding”), from Latin supplic-, supplex (“suppliant, submissive, kneeling”), of uncertain formation. Either from sub + plicō (“bend”) (compare complex), or from sub + plācō (“placate”). More at sub-, placate.

1

Pliant, flexible, easy to bend.

  • Global supply chains, meanwhile, have grown both tighter and more supple since the late 1990s—the result of improving information technology and of freer trade—making routine work easier to relocate.2011 July 25, Don Peck, “Can the Middle Class Be Saved?”, in The Atlantic:
2

Lithe and agile when moving and bending.

  • supple joints
  • supple fingers
1 more example
  • My hands are supple and small. A woman in a bread shop once said to me: “You have the hands for making fine little pastries.”1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, pages 82–83:
3

Figuratively Compliant; yielding to the will of others.

  • a supple horse
  • If punishment […] makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.1693, [John Locke], “§78”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
4

Beverages, Food, Lifestyle, Oenology, Wine Smooth and drinkable.

Derived terms
supplejack, supplely, suppleness, supply, unsupple

supple

verb

Etymology From Middle English souple, from Old French souple, soupple (“soft, lithe, yielding”), from Latin supplic-, supplex (“suppliant, submissive, kneeling”), of uncertain formation. Either from sub + plicō (“bend”) (compare complex), or from sub + plācō (“placate”). More at sub-, placate.

1

Ambitransitive To make or become supple.

  • The flesh therewith she suppled and did steepe1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 33:
  • The Stones (a Miracle to Mortal View, / But long Tradition makes it paſs for true) / Did firſt the Rigour of their Kind expel, / And ſuppled into ſoftneſs, as they fell; […]1717, John Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 18:
2

To make compliant, submissive, or obedient.

  • They should supple our stiff wilfulness.a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, Of contentment, patience and resignation to the will of God:
  • a mother persisting till she had bent her daughter's mind and suppled her will1693, [John Locke], “§78”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
Derived terms
unsuppled

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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