Word.ws English Dictionary

supple

UK/ˈsʌpəl/

supple adjective: pliant, flexible, easy to bend.

Adjective

supple (comparative suppler, superlative supplest)

  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
  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. Smooth and drinkable.

Verb

supple (third-person singular simple present supples, present participle suppling, simple past and past participle suppled)

  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. (transitive) 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

Proper noun capitalized: Supple

Supple (plural Supples)

  1. A surname.

supple meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

supple in Tamil

வளையக்கூடிய, துவள், தொய்

supple in Bengali

নমনীয়, চটপটে

supple in Malayalam

limber, lithe, lissom(e)
മയമുള്ള, മൃദുചടുലശരീരമുള്ള, വളയ്ക്കാവുന്ന, വഴങ്ങുന്ന, വഴക്കമുള്ള, അയവുള്ള
pliable, pliant, flexible
എളുപ്പത്തിൽ വളയുന്ന, വഴങ്ങുന്ന, വളയ്ക്കാവുന്ന, പണിയാവുന്ന, പണിക്കുവഴങ്ങുന്ന, വഴക്കമുള്ള

supple in Kannada

ಕೋಮಲ, ಮೃದುವಾದ, ಹೇಳಿದಂತೆ ಕೇಳುವ, ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿ ಮಣಿಯುವ, ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿ ಬಗ್ಗಿಸಬಹುದಾದ, ಮೆದುವಾದ

Examples of supple in a sentence

  • Their small supple forms slipped busily along the floor at dusk, continually perfecting their burrows.
  • He stroked the supple leather, imagining it molded to Avily's creamy, delicate flesh.
  • It was springy and supple, the rich deep green of springtime.

All 25 example sentences with supple

Forms of supple

Adjective
comparativesuppler
superlativesupplest
Verb
third-person singular presentsupples
present participlesuppling
past participlesuppled
pastsuppled
Proper noun
pluralSupples

Origin of supple

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.

Words formed from supple

Phrases with supple

Words that rhyme with supple

Questions about supple

What does supple mean?
Supple means pliant, flexible, easy to bend.
What is supple in Tamil?
Supple in Tamil is வளையக்கூடிய, துவள், தொய். See Supple meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is supple?
Supple can be an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce supple?
Supple is pronounced /ˈsʌpəl/ (UK).

Words near supple in the dictionary

  1. supplanting
  2. supplantings
  3. supplantment
  4. supplants
  5. supplaunt
  6. supple
  7. supple jack
  8. supple jacks
  9. supple-jack
  10. supple-jacks
  11. suppled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: supple (page history and authors); Supple (page history and authors); supple (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); supple (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); supple (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); supple (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-supple.ogg, en-au-supple.ogg.

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