Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use lithe in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective, verb, noun

Lithe means mild; calm. Example: “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.”

Examples of lithe by meaning

adjectiveSlim but not skinny.

  • 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...

adjectiveCapable of being easily bent; flexible.

  • the elephant’s lithe trunk.
  • No snake could have been lither.1900, Grant Allen, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter VIII, in Hilda Wade

verbTo 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 'to thicken soups, sauces, etc.'1994, Arnold Kellett, The English Dialect Dictionary, Smith Settle, page 105

More sentences with lithe

  • Fine the horses, with flying manes and tight lithe bodies, shoulders sweating, muscles rippling, mouths afroth.1969, Robert Coover, Pricksongs & descants: fictions, page 170. From the entry afroth
  • He had that kind of unburly, lithe physique.2013, Bill James, Play Dead. From the entry unburly
  • A long knife was in the doeskin belt that supported the doeskin skirt tightly about her lithe limbs.1916, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Lost Continent. From the entry doeskin
  • Until recently, Lia had managed to stay lithe despite owning Pelican’s two popular sweeteries, Fais Dough Dough Patisserie and Bon Bon Sweets.2017, Ellen Byron, A Cajun Christmas Killing, New York, N.Y.: Crooked Lane, →ISBN, page 39. From the entry sweetery
  • The other dwarvess removed the towel from Elypsa, picked her lithe frame up, took her to the tub, and placed her within the waters.2016, Craig Halloran, chapter 1, in Brigands and Badlands (The Darkslayer; series 2, book 6), Charleston, W.V.: Two-Ten Book Press, →ISBN. From the entry dwarvess
  • Thus the lithe and slightly feminised John Travolta of Saturday Night Fever is transformed into the pumping, grinding-body-obsessed gym bunny of Staying Alive.2006, Tim Edwards, Cultures of Masculinity, →ISBN, page 137. From the entry gym bunny
  • Lithe and rubber necks crane as the Great Ladies (or are those Fascinating Ladies?) step daintily into the lobby, bejewelled, befurred and betiaraed.1947, Eve Brown, “Culture With a Capital K”, in Champagne Cholly: The Life and Times of Maury Paul, New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton &…. From the entry betiaraed
  • At that time I was mad about surf-casting, and here was a tanned and lithe fellow, young and black-haired, casting the long line with a masterful arc.2005, Alistair Cooke, Letter from America: 1946-2004, →ISBN. From the entry surf-casting
  • I'm impressed, especially considering that, at 51, his lithe, aerobic workout was performed by a man who confesses to having spent "25 years gacked to the nines".1999 June 18, “Rock and a hard place”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived…. From the entry gacked
  • Blue-eyed, fair-haired and rosy-cheeked, she was not, it is true, either lithe or lath-like, but then had not Tommo once expressed a preference for breasty girls?1968, James Balfour, Those Darling Days, page 192. From the entry breasty

Meaning of lithe

  1. adjective Mild; calm.
  2. adjective Slim but not skinny.
  3. adjective Capable of being easily bent; flexible.

Full definition of lithe

Questions about lithe in a sentence

How do you use lithe in a sentence?
Lithe is used as an adjective, verb and noun. For example: “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 is a short sentence with lithe?
“the elephant’s lithe trunk.”
What does lithe mean?
Lithe means mild; calm.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lithe (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use lithe in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/lithe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.