lithe

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /laɪð/

adj

Etymology: 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.

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.”
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 …”
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.”

noun

Etymology: Uncertain; perhaps an alteration of lewth.

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.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English lithen (“to make gentle or mild; to relax, soothe”), from Old English līþan (“to assuage, mitigate, soften”), from līþe (“lithe, gentle”).

to thicken (gravy, etc.)
“lithe widely used as a verb in nEng Sc and Ir, as a noun only in Cu”
“to render lithe or thick, to thicken (broth, etc.)”