Obs. or arch. [ad. L. exīlis thin, lank. Cf. F. exile (Cotgr.).
The ultimate etymology is disputed; some regard it as contracted from *exigilis, f. exigĕre (cf. EXIGUOUS; others as f. ex- privative + īlia entrails, the primary sense being assumed to have been ‘disembowelled.’]
1. Slender, shrunken, thin; diminutive.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., XI. 387. Ache seede … Wherof the flaume hath lefte a core exile.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Champ, Excellent spirits are often lodged in exile, or small, bodies.
1671. Flamsteed, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 124. I saw the Anses of Saturn very exile.
1687. H. More, App. Antid. (1712), 225. This actual division of the whole into so many subtile, exile, invisible particles.
2. Attenuated, thin. Of theories: Fine-spun.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. viii. 18. That ground which … breathes … forth exile and fumie vapours quickly vanishing … is … plyant for the plowe.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 75. Meanes … to draw forth the Exile heat which is in the Air. Ibid., § 155. His Voice plainly … made extreame sharp and exile, like the Voice of Puppets.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, I. Pref. These exile Theories.
1797. Hist., in Ann. Reg., 178/1. It is not … the paper that is, in fact, the substitute for money but something still more exile; the promise … stamped upon it.
† b. Grk. Gram. Unaspirated. Obs.
1671. H. M., trans. Erasm. Colloq., 202. If οὔ be acuted and exile, [etc.].
3. Meager, scanty; ‘lean,’ poorly endowed. Also of soils: Poor, barren.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., XI. 30. In lande ther ayer is hoot and drie, And erthe exile or hilly drie or lene, Vynes beth best ysette.
1525. Wolsey, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 99, II. 18. The Suppression of certain exile & small Monasteries.
1535. Cranmer, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. xxvi. 189. Their Benefices were so exile,… that no Learned Man would take them.
1565. W. Alley, Poor Man’s Libr., I. Ded. A iij. The litle Talent of my exile and sclender learnyng.
1654. Fuller, Comm. Ruth (1868), 123. Is it not a petty, a small, exile courtesy.
1685. H. More, Paralip. Prophet., 451. A more magnificent expression of what is, Chap. II, said in more exile phrase.
1863. J. R. Walbran, Mem. Fountains Abbey (Surtees), I. 50. The convent was in the most exile condition.
b. quasi-adv.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, I. iii. 8. The ingeniousest Wits in the world have been such who feed exilest, or most slenderly.
