Lithe vs Petit - What's the difference?

lithe | petit |

As adjectives the difference between lithe and petit

is that lithe is mild; calm while petit is small or minor.

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

petit

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

(legal, or, obsolete) small or minor

* South

By what small, petit hints does the mind catch hold of and recover a vanishing notion.

Derived terms

* petit constable * petit jury * petit larceny * petit serjeanty * petit treason