Word.ws English Dictionary

subtling

subtling is the present participle and gerund of subtle.

Meaning of subtle

Verb

subtle (third-person singular simple present subtles, present participle subtling, simple past and past participle subtled)

  1. (US, transitive) To make (something) subtle (“giving only a slight impression; also, skilfully restrained or understated”).
  2. (obsolete, rare, transitive, uncertain) To burn (someone or something) to ash.
    • A fire ſubtle ye, are ye ſo crafty.1624 (first performance), John Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comoedy. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Leonard Lichfield […], published 1640, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 43

See all 20 meanings of subtle

Questions about subtling

What is subtling the present participle and gerund of?
Subtling is the present participle and gerund of subtle.

Words near subtling in the dictionary

  1. subtler
  2. subtles
  3. subtlest
  4. subtleties
  5. subtlety
  6. subtling
  7. subtlist
  8. subtlists
  9. subtly
  10. subtoken
  11. subtokens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subtling (page history and authors); subtle (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.

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Cite this entry: “subtling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subtling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.