sylphlike

comparative more sylphlike · superlative most sylphlike

1. Resembling (that of) a sylph; slender and graceful.

   Arm's length from her he saw the sylphlike grace of her girlish body

   1927, William Byron Mowery, Pirates Of The Muskeg

   4 more examples

   Soon advancing through the hall, he saw the sylphlike figure of the lovely Olympia […]

   1811, Percy Bysshe Shelley, chapter IV, in St. Irvyne

   […] the thin robes Floating like light clouds ’twixt our gaze and heaven; The many-twinkling feet so small and sylphlike, Suggesting the more secret symmetry Of the fair forms which terminate so well—

   1821, Lord Byron, Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, act IV, lines 57–61

   Once Tex had said to me, very sister-to-sister, “Aren’t we mad, we gay boys, starving ourselves to sylphlike fragility, all so we can attract a straight cop with a beer belly?”

   1988, Edmund White, chapter 4, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994

   Here we see a few of the 48 diminutive hopefuls who showed up that day, awaiting their turn to impress the judges with a high instep or a particularly sylphlike extension.

   2001 December 2, “Emily Eakin, The Way We Live Now: 12-02-01: Phenomenon; Tiny Dancers”, in The New York Times