English

Verb

lithe ‎(third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past lithed or lode, past participle lithed or lidden)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To go.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lithe, from Old English līþe ‎(“gentle, mild”), from Proto-Germanic *linþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lentos. Akin to Saterland Frisian lied ‎(“thin, skinny, gaunt”), Danish and German lind ‎(“mild”), Icelandic linur ‎(“soft to the touch”). Not attested in Gothic nor Old Norse. Some sources list also Latin lenis ‎(“soft”), others Latin lentus ‎(“supple”).

Adjective

lithe ‎(comparative lither, superlative lithest)

1. (obsolete) Mild; calm.

   lithe weather

2. slim but not skinny

   lithe body

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter III:

     She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.

3. Capable of being easily bent; pliant; flexible; limber

   the elephant’s lithe proboscis.

   • 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Elsie Venner, page 125

     … she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace …

Synonyms

• lithesome
• lissome
• swack

Derived terms

• litheness

Related terms

• -inda
• lind
• linden
• Linda

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English lithen, from Old English līþian, līþiġian ‎(“to soften, calm, mitigate, assuage, appease, be mild”), from Proto-Germanic *linþijaną ‎(“to soften”), from Proto-Indo-European *lento- ‎(“bendsome, resilient”).

Verb

lithe

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To become calm.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To make soft or mild; soften; alleviate; mitigate; lessen; smooth; palliate.

Etymology 4

From Middle English lithen, from Old Norse hlýða ‎(“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hliuþijaną ‎(“to listen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewe- ‎(“to hear”). Cognate with Danish lytte ‎(“to listen”). Related to Old English hlēoþor ‎(“noise, sound, voice, song, hearing”), Old English hlūd ‎(“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”). More at loud.

Verb

lithe ‎(third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To attend; listen.
2. (transitive) To listen to.

Etymology 5

Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of lewth.

Noun

lithe ‎(plural lithes)

1. (Scotland) Shelter.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:

     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.

Anagrams

• lieth, Theil