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Webster 1828 Edition


Gracile

GRAC'ILE

,
Adj.
[L. gracilis.] Slender. [Not in use.]

Definition 2024


gracile

gracile

English

Alternative forms

  • gracilent

Adjective

gracile (comparative more gracile, superlative most gracile)

  1. Slender; thin; lean.
    • 1853, Works of Walter Savage Landor:
      Unswathe his Egyptian mummy; and ... you disclose the grave features and gracile bones of ... a cat
    • 1971, Oxford English Dictionary#Compact_editions:
      Gracile ... By some recent writers misused (through association with grace) for "Gracefully slender":
    • 2005, Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale:
      They seem to have evolved from more ‘gracile’ apes (gracile being the opposite of robust).
    • 2009, Clive Finlayson, Neanderthals and Modern Humans:
      A more gracile morphology would have been far more efficient over larger areas.
  2. Graceful or gracefully slender.

Translations

Derived terms

Anagrams


French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin gracilis. Doublet of grêle.

Adjective

gracile m, f (plural graciles)

  1. gracile

Italian

Adjective

gracile m, f (masculine and feminine plural gracili)

  1. delicate, frail, weakly
  2. slender, thin

Related terms

Anagrams


Latin

Adjective

gracile

  1. nominative neuter singular of gracilis
  2. accusative neuter singular of gracilis
  3. vocative neuter singular of gracilis