Lithe vs Graceful - What's the difference?

lithe | graceful | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between lithe and graceful

is that lithe is mild; calm while graceful is having or showing grace in movement, shape, or proportion.

As a verb lithe

is to go.

As a noun lithe

is shelter.

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

graceful

English

Alternative forms

* gracefull (archaic)

Adjective

(en adjective)

Having or showing grace in movement, shape, or proportion.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.}}

Antonyms

* graceless * clumsy

Derived terms

* gracefulness