Gracile

/ˈɡɹæsaɪl/ · adjective

Meaning

(also figuratively) Lean, slender, thin..

Definitions by Sense

1. (also figuratively) Lean, slender, thin.
2. (chiefly zoology, anthropology, paleontology) Of an animal or skeletal element: having a slender frame.
3. Graceful or gracefully slender.

Example Sentences

[T]hoſe Trees that are called Firs by the Vulgar (from their near conformity and likeneſs to that Tree) are well known by all Learned Men (by the Redneſs, the Roſinous Nature of the Wood, the Gracil Cones hanging downwards, &c.) to be the true Pitch-Tree, of which there are ſuch great plenty in Norway, Sweden, and other Countries of the North, [...]

Maxillary palpi shorter than the antennæ, the terminal joint small, gracile, subulated; [...]

The finish, the extreme delicacy of his [William Blake's] pencil, in his light gracile forms, marvellouslfy contrast with the ideal figures of his mystic allegories; sometimes playful, as the loveliness of the arabesques of Raffaelle.

Unswathe his Egyptian mummy; and from the folds of fine linen, bestrewn and impregnated with aromatics, you disclose the grave features and gracile bones of a goodly and venerable cat.

The gracile and cuneate nuclei [of the brainstem] take shape before the decussation of the pyramids is fully completed [...]. The gracile nucleus appears in the form of a small irregular mass of gray matter in the interior of the funiculus gracilis. [...] It [the cuneate nucleus] presents a very different appearance from the gracile nucleus, because throughout its whole length the gray nucleus and the fibres of the strand are separated from each other by a sharp line of demarcation.

The cheetah's gracile, canid-like morphological features and the extremely fast sprint it uses to capture prey have fostered a popular mythology that the species is overly specialized and hence doomed to extinction [...].

I am helplessly addicted to this place, this wondrous geographic puzzle of canyons turning in on themselves, [...] of horizon-wide sweeps of sunlit emptiness and gracile unknown places where darkness hides and will not tell its name.

While the pelvis is the best area to determine an individual's sex, the skull may also be used. [...] For example, males usually have very prominent (or robust) mastoid processes, projections that serve as muscle attachment sites behind the ears, while females have much smaller (or gracile) mastoid processes. Due to human variation, it is possible for a man to have very gracile features or a female to have very robust features.

Synonyms for gracile

Antonyms for gracile

Related Words

Word Forms

• more gracile
• most gracile

Usage Notes

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