lithe

[lahyth] /laɪð/

adjective, lither, lithest.

bending readily; pliant; limber; supple; flexible:

the lithe body of a ballerina.

Also, lithesome.

Origin

before 900; Middle English lith(e), Old English līthe; cognate with Old Saxon līthi, German lind mild, Latin lentus slow

Related forms

lithely, adverb

litheness, noun

Can be confused

lithe, lissome.

Examples from the web for lithe

These champion sprinters rely on long, muscular legs to propel their lithe bodies.
These belonged to an epaulette shark, small and lovely and speckled, lithe as an eel as it curled round a coral pillar.
Hunter-gatherers may have been so lithe and healthy because the weak were dead.

British Dictionary definitions for lithe

lithe

/laɪð/

adjective

flexible or supple

Derived Forms

lithely, adverb
litheness, noun

Word Origin

Old English (in the sense: gentle; C15: supple); related to Old High German lindi soft, Latin lentus slow

Word Origin and History for lithe

adj.

Old English liðe "soft, mild, gentle, meek," from Proto-Germanic *linthja- (cf. Old Saxon lithi "soft, mild, gentle," Old High German lindi, German lind, Old Norse linr, with characteristic loss of "n" before "th" in English), from PIE root *lent- "flexible" (cf. Latin lentus "flexible, pliant, slow," Sanskrit lithi). In Middle English, used of the weather. Current sense of "easily flexible" is from c.1300. Related: Litheness.

lithe in Technology

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.