subtly
English
Alternative forms
- subtlely
- subtilly (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English sotilly; equivalent to subtle + -ly.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsʌt.li/, /ˈsʌ.tl̩.li/
Audio (UK) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈsʌ.tl̩.li/
Adverb
subtly (comparative more subtly, superlative most subtly)
- With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.
- 1533, Erasmus of Roterdame, “The Thyrde Instruction”, in [anonymous], transl., A Playne and Godly Exposytion or Declaration of the Commune Crede (which in the Latin Tonge is Called Symbolum Apostolorum): And of the .x. Commaundementes of Goddes Law. […], imprinted at London […]: By me Robert Redman, […] [for William Marshall], OCLC 1114134812, folio 66, verso:
- Nexte cometh Arrius by ſoo muche the more wretched and madde in opynyon, by howe muche he dothe more ſubtely and craftily geue unto Chriſt the body of a man, and taketh from hym the ſowle of a man, […]
- 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, OCLC 17479433, II. part, page 104:
- For though Contraria iuxta ſe poſita magis illuceſcunt [opposites placed next to each other shine more brightly] (by an olde Rule) yet it hath beene ſubtilly, and indeede truely noted that our Sight, is not vvell contented, vvith thoſe ſudden departments, from one extreame to another; Therefore let them haue, rather a Duskiſh Tincture, then an abſolute blacke.
- 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.
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Translations
with subtleness, in a subtle manner
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Anagrams
- bustly, butyls