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lithe - 7 dictionary results

lithe

  [lahyth]
Use lithe in a Sentence
–adjective, lith⋅er, lith⋅est.
bending readily; pliant; limber; supple; flexible: the lithe body of a ballerina.
Also, lithesome.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME lith(e), OE līthe; c. OS līthi, G lind mild, L lentus slow

Related forms:
lithely, adverb
litheness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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lithe   (līth)   
adj.   lith·er, lith·est
  1. Readily bent; supple: lithe birch branches.
  2. Marked by effortless grace: a lithe ballet dancer.

[Middle English, from Old English līthe, flexible, mild.]
lithe'ly adv., lithe'ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Lithe

Lithe\, v. i. & i. [Icel ?. See Listen.] To listen or listen to; to hearken to. [Obs.] --P. Plowman.

Lithe

Lithe\, a. [AS. ?, for ? tender, mild, gentle; akin to G. lind, gelind, OHG. lindi, Icel. linr, L. lenis soft, mild, lentus flexible, and AS. linnan to yield. Cf. Lenient.]

1. Mild; calm; as, lithe weather. [Obs.]

2. Capable of being easily bent; pliant; flexible; limber; as, the elephant's lithe proboscis. --Milton.

Lithe

Lithe\, v. t. [AS. ?. See Lithe, a.] To smooth; to soften; to palliate. [Obs.]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : lithe
Spanish: ágil,
German: geschmeidig,
Japanese: しなやかな
More Translations »

lithe 
O.E. liðe "soft, mild, gentle, meek," from P.Gmc. *linthijaz (cf. O.S. lithi, O.H.G. lindi, Ger. lind, O.N. linr, with characteristic loss of "n" before "th" in Eng.), from PIE base *lent- "flexible" (cf. L. lentus "flexible, pliant, slow"). In M.E., used of the weather. Current sense of "easily flexible" is from c.1400.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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LITHE
Object-oriented with extensible syntax.
"LITHE: A Language Combining a Flexible Syntax and Classes", D. Sandberg, Conf Rec 9th Ann ACM Sym POPL, ACM 1982, pp.142-145.

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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