subtile

comparative subtiler · superlative subtilest

1. archaicArchaic spelling of subtle.

   I burst into mirth at this—I liked him even better when he was subtile than when he was simple.

   1888, Henry James, chapter 2, in The Solution

   2 more examples

   For wisedome which is the worker of all things, taught mee: for in her is an vnderstanding spirit holy, one onely, manifold, subtile, liuely, cleare, vndefiled, plaine, not subiect to hurt, louing the thing that is good, quicke, which cānot be letted, ready to do good: Kinde to man, stedfast, sure, free from care, hauing all power, ouerseeing all things, and going through all vnderstanding, pure, and most subtile spirits.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Wisdom of Solomon 7:22–23

   And sometimes this perception, in some kind of bodies, is far more subtile than the sense; so that the sense is but a dull thing in comparison of it: we see a weather-glass will find the least difference of the weather, in heat, or cold, when men find it not.

   1819, Francis Bacon, The Works of Francis Bacon, volume 2, page 2