lithe
/laɪð/
lithe adjective: mild; calm.
Adjective
lithe (comparative lither, superlative lithest)
- Mild; calm.
- lithe weather
- Slim but not skinny.
- lithe body
- The noise of their battle with Numa had drawn an excited horde of savages from the nearby village, and a moment after the lion’s death the two men were surrounded by lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering—a thousand questions that drowned each ventured reply.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 125
- Capable of being easily bent; flexible.
- the elephant’s lithe trunk.
- … she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace …1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Elsie Venner, page 125
- Adaptable.
- Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let^([sic – meaning yet]) light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy.2018 March 8, Eric Asimov, “Bubbles, With Joy: Pétillant Naturel’s Triumphant Return”, in The New York Times
Verb (1)
lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)
- To become calm.
- To make soft or mild; soften; alleviate; mitigate; lessen; smooth; palliate.
- England.. hath now suppled, lithed and stretched their throats.a. 1652, Thomas Adams, Physic from Heaven
- Give me also faith, Lord,.. to lithe, to form, and to accommodate my spirit and members.1642, Daniel Rogers, Naaman the Syrian: His Disease and Cure
Verb (2)
lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)
Noun
lithe (plural lithes)
- Shelter.
- So Cospatric got him the Pict folk to build a strong castle there in the lithe of the hills, with the Grampians dark and bleak behind it, and he had the Den drained and he married a Pict lady and got on her bairns and he lived there till he died.1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song
Verb (3)
lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)
- to thicken (gravy, etc.)
- lithe widely used as a verb in nEng Sc and Ir, as a noun only in Cu1902, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, Oxford University Press, page 624
- to render lithe or thick, to thicken (broth, etc.)1933, C.T. Onions, editor, The Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, page 344
lithe meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
lithe in Tamil
- வளைகிற, வளையத்தக்க, துவளும், பதமுள்ள
lithe in Urdu
- لچکدار, لوچ دار
lithe in Bengali
- শরীরের বিশেষ নমনীয়তা, কমনীয়তা, ক্ষিপ্রতা সম্পন্ন
lithe in Malayalam
- വഴങ്ങുന്ന, വളയുന്ന, അയവുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
- lithe in Kannada
- ಬಳುಕುವ, ಬಾಗುವ
Examples of lithe in a sentence
- The coaches are grim, tan, lithe-looking women, clearly twirlers once, on the far side of their glory now and very serious-looking, each with a clipboard and whistle.1997, David Foster Wallace, “Getting Away From Already Pretty Much Being Away From It All”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again...
- lithe vt to THICKEN gravy V7.7 la:ð Y, laɪð Y Nt L, laɪð La Nt L1994, Clive Upton, David Parry, J.D.A. Widdowson, Survey of English Dialects: The Dictionary and Grammar, Croom Helm:
Synonyms of lithe
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of lithe
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | lither |
| superlative | lithest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lithes |
| present participle | lithing |
| past participle | lithed |
| past | lithed |
| alternative form | lythe |
| Noun | |
| plural | lithes |
Origin of lithe
From Middle English lithe, from Old English līþe (“gentle, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *linþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lentos. Akin to Saterland Frisian lied (“thin, skinny, gaunt”), Danish, Dutch, and archaic German lind (“mild”). Some sources also list Latin lenis (“soft”) and/or Latin lentus (“supple”) as possible cognates.
From Middle English lithen, from Old English līþian, līþigian, līþegian (“to soften, calm, mitigate, assuage, appease, be mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþijan, from Proto-Germanic *linþijaną (“to soften”), from Proto-Indo-European *lento- (“bendsome, resilient”). Cognate with German lindern (“to alleviate, ease, relieve”).
From Middle English lithen, from Old Norse hlýða (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hliuþijaną (“to listen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). Cognate with Danish lytte (“to listen”). Related to Old English hlēoþor (“noise, sound, voice, song, hearing”), Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”). More at loud.
Words formed from lithe
Words that rhyme with lithe
Questions about lithe
- What does lithe mean?
- Lithe means mild; calm.
- What is lithe in Tamil?
- Lithe in Tamil is வளைகிற, வளையத்தக்க, துவளும். See Lithe meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use lithe in a sentence?
- The coaches are grim, tan, lithe-looking women, clearly twirlers once, on the far side of their glory now and very serious-looking, each with a clipboard and whistle.
- What part of speech is lithe?
- Lithe can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce lithe?
- Lithe is pronounced /laɪð/.
Words near lithe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lithe (page history and authors); lithe (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lithe (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lithe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lithe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lithe (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-lithe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lithe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lithe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.