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comparative suppler, superlative supplest
Pliant, flexible, easy to bend. quotations examples
Global supply chains, meanwhile, have grown both tighter and more supple since the late 1990s—the result of improving information technology and of freer trade—making routine work easier to relocate.
2011 July 25, Don Peck, “Can the Middle Class Be Saved?”, in The Atlantic
Lithe and agile when moving and bending. quotations examples
My hands are supple and small. A woman in a bread shop once said to me: “You have the hands for making fine little pastries.”
1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, pages 82–83
(figuratively) Compliant; yielding to the will of others. quotations examples
If punishment […] makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.
1693, [John Locke], “§78”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […]
third-person singular simple present supples, present participle suppling, simple past and past participle suppled
(transitive, intransitive) To make or become supple. quotations examples
The flesh therewith she suppled and did steepe
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 33
The Stones (a Miracle to Mortal View, / But long Tradition makes it paſs for true) / Did firſt the Rigour of their Kind expel, / And ſuppled into ſoftneſs, as they fell; […]
1717, John Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 18
(transitive) To make compliant, submissive, or obedient. quotations examples
They should supple our stiff wilfulness.
a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, Of contentment, patience and resignation to the will of God
a mother persisting till she had bent her daughter's mind and suppled her will