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Lithe vs Flex - What's the difference?

lithe | flex |

As verbs the difference between lithe and flex

is that lithe is to go while flex is to bend something.

As nouns the difference between lithe and flex

is that lithe is shelter while flex is flexibility, pliancy.

As an adjective lithe

is mild; calm.

lithe

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) lithen, from (etyl) . See also (l), (l).

Verb

  • (obsolete) To go.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) lithe, from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (obsolete) Mild; calm.
  • ''lithe weather
  • slim but not skinny
  • lithe body
  • *
  • She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe , polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
  • Capable of being easily bent; pliant; flexible; limber
  • the elephant’s lithe proboscis.
  • * 1861 , , page 125
  • … she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace …
    Synonyms
    * lithesome, lissome,

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) lithen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (head)
  • (obsolete) To become calm.
  • (obsolete) To make soft or mild; soften; alleviate; mitigate; lessen; smooth; palliate.
  • Etymology 4

    From (etyl) lithen, from (etyl) . More at (l).

    Verb

    (lith)
  • (obsolete) To give ear; attend; listen.
  • To listen to.
  • Etymology 5

    Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of (lewth).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Scotland) Shelter.
  • * 1932 , (Lewis Grassic Gibbon), Sunset Song :
  • So Cospatric got him the Pict folk to build a strong castle there in the lithe of the hills, with the Grampians dark and bleak behind it, and he had the Den drained and he married a Pict lady and got on her bairns and he lived there till he died.

    Anagrams

    *

    flex

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Flexibility, pliancy.
  • (countable) The act of flexing.
  • (uncountable, chiefly, British) Any flexible insulated electrical wiring.
  • (countable, geometry) A point of inflection.
  • Verb

    (es)
  • To bend something.
  • To repeatedly bend one of one's joints.
  • To move part of the body using one's muscles.
  • (bodybuilding) To tighten the muscles for display of size or strength.
  • * 1994 , Elise Title, Body Heat? , page 189
  • He rubbed his hands together. "Believe it or not, there was a time when I considered giving acting a go. What do you think, Miss Fox?" He flexed impressive biceps. "Would I have had a chance against the Schwarzeneggers and the Chuck Norris types?"