Forms: 3–7, 8–9 Sc. and north. dial. souple, (6 souble (?), soupil, Sc. soupill, sowpil, 6–7 suple, 7, 9 Sc. and north. dial. soople), 5– supple. [a. OF. supple, sople, (mod.F.) souple:—L. supplicem, supplex lit. ‘bending under,’ hence, submissive, suppliant, f. sup- SUB- 2 + plic-, root of plicāre to fold (cf. PLIANT).]
† 1. Of soft or yielding consistency; not rigid; soft, tender. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4577. Þoru hauberc & þoru is coler þat nere noþing souple He smot of is heued.
c. 1395. Plowman’s Tale, 58. Of sondry sedes that ben sewe; It semeth that som ben unsounde. For some be grete growen on grounde, Som ben souple [ed. 1542 souble], simple and small.
a. 1400. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 442. Take swynes lire, and sethe hit, and howe hit smalle,… ande make hit right souple.
2. That is easily bent or folded without breaking or cracking; pliant, flexible.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 203. His bootes souple, his hors in greet estaat.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 201. Hire pylche souple.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. xiii. 7. The sowpill schaftis baldly sche On athir sydis thik sparpellis and leyt fle.
1583. Leg. Bp. St. Androis, 749. This poysoned preicheor of Godis word Is not vnlyk ane suple suord.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xi. (1912), 220. Her bellie … Like Alablaster faire and sleeke, But soft and supple satten like.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes, 109. They will wash and not shrinke in the wetting, and weare very long and soople.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 266. For his soft Neck, a supple Collar make Of bending Osiers.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Lentise, Their Ends and middle Veins are reddish, supple, and gluey.
1785. Burns, Scotch Drink, iv. On thee aft Scotland chows her cood, In souple scones, the wale o’ food!
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xiii. A fearful instrument of flagellation, strong, supple, wax-ended, and new.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., II. vi. 581. The material [of the dress] should be soft and supple.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxxi. 411. Persistently whipping the stream with his supple fly-rod.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 670. The remedy should be rubbed in with sufficient frequency and in sufficient quantity to keep the skin supple and unctuous.
† b. transf. of the internal organs of the body.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 70. Vse a lytel trauaill yn ridynge…. It dryues out wyndys, comfortys þe body and makys hit souple.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp. (1719), 1. Middling Ale … scoureth … slimy Filth, from off the … Glands; turns it over the Pylorus, and leaves a balmy, benign Litus instead, to keep all supple and easy.
c. Souple Tam, ‘a child’s toy, which, being pulled by a string, shakes and seems to dance’ (Jamieson, 1825). Sc.
[1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxvii. It [a horse] ’s a grand bargain…. The stringhalt will gae aff when it’s gaen a mile; it’s a weel-ken’d ganger; they ca’ it Souple Tam.]
1870. R. Chambers, Pop. Rhymes Scotl., 18. And ye’ll get a coatie, And a pair o’ breekies—Ye’ll get a whippie and a supple Tam!
d. fig. Adaptable; elastic.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 602. Some wiser rule … Supple and flexible as Indian cane, To take the bend his appetites ordain.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 219. His supple address and determination saved Rome from a revolution.
1890. Gladstone, in Daily News, 4 June, 6/1. To make the human mind a supple, effective, strong, available instrument for whatever purposes it may be required to be applied to.
3. Of the body, limbs, etc.: Capable of bending easily; moving easily or nimbly.
1530. Palsgr., 325/1. Souple, lythe, souple.
1610. Shaks., Temp., III. iii. 107. I doe beseech you (That are of suppler ioynts) follow them swiftly.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Custom & Educ. (Arb.), 371. The Ioints are more Supple to all Feats of Actiuitie.
1747. Richardson, Clarissa (1810), I. xviii. 132. Limbs so supple; will so stubborn!
1781. J. Moore, View Soc. It., xlix. (1790), II. 52. We all bowed to the ground; the supplest of the company had the happiness to touch the sacred slipper.
1827. Scott, Surg. Dau., iii. If he listed to tak some [dancing-] lessons, I think I could make some hand of his feet, for he is a souple chield.
1833. Regul. & Instr. Cavalry, I. 40. The Horse … will be rendered supple, active, and obedient.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, XIX. i. IV. 4. Henry at thirty-five was still a young man in the flower of life: tall, fair, and supple.
b. Supple knee: in reference to insincere or obsequious obeisance. Cf. 4.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iv. 33. A brace of Dray-men bid God speed him well, And had the tribute of his supple knee.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, vi. (1871), 89. It cost him nothing but a supple knee, And oyly mouth & much observancie.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 788. Will ye submit your necks, and chuse to bend The supple knee?
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VI. 294. Religion, public order, both exact External homage, and a supple knee.
1781. Cowper, Table Talk, 127. Servility with supple knees, Whose trade it is to smile, to crouch, to please.
c. transf. of movements, etc.: Characterized by flexibility of body or limb.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. i. 102. Each part depriu’d of supple gouernment, Shall stiffe and starke, and cold appeare like death.
1778. Earl Pembroke, Equitation, 63. I define the supple trot to be that in which the horse at every motion that he makes, bends and plays all his joints.
1809. Roland, Fencing, 66. Keep a firm, steady, and supple position of the body.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxv. Her movements had the supple softness, the velvet grace of a kitten.
† d. Of wind: Gentle, soft. Obs. rare.
1652. Crashaw, Carmen Deo Nostro, Wks. (1904), 194. Be they such As sigh with supple wind Or answer Artfull Touch.
4. fig. Yielding readily to persuasion or influence; compliant. Const. to.
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Treat., 20. Forto broke downe the vnbuxomnes of the body … that itt myght be souple and redy, and not moch contrarious to the spirite in gostely wyrkynge.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 3376. A feloun firste though that he be, Aftir thou shalt hym souple se.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 281. For all þe herte, tunge, and dede, arn so harde as grauell-stonys,… but it arn supple ynow to þe world, to þe flesch, & to þe deuyll.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. i. 55. When we haue stufft These Pipes … With Wine and Feeding, we haue suppler Soules Then in our Priest-like Fasts.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Holy Bapt., II. ii. Let me be soft and supple to thy will.
1668–9. Pepys, Diary, 12 Jan. It being about the matter of paying a little money to Chatham Yard, wherein I find the Treasurers mighty supple.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XIV. § 1. Cromwell did not find the Parliament so supple and so much to observe his Orders, as he expected they would have been.
1735. H. Walpole, Lett. to Ld. Harrington, 2 Oct. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 261. His Lordship’s supple and mild temper.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 715. Sad, silent, supple; bending to the blow, A slave of slaves.
1861. Sat. Rev., 23 Nov., 528/2. The City Marshal of Baltimore has been arrested, and a suppler instrument fills his place.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, 4. Be soople, Davie, in things immaterial.
5. Compliant or accommodating from selfish motives; artfully or servilely complaisant or obsequious.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. ii. 29. His assent is not by such easie degrees as those, who hauing beene supple and courteous to the People, Bonnetted, without any further deed, to haue them at all into their estimation, and report.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 27 Nov. 1666. By no means fit for a supple and flattering courtier.
1726. Swift, Paraphr. Hor., I. Ode xiv. 55. Like supple Patriots of the modern Sort, Who turn with ev’ry Gale that blows from Court.
1812. Crabbe, Tales, v. 366. That servile, supple, shrewd, insidious throng.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 246. Cunning, supple, shameless, free from all prejudices, and destitute of all principles.
1884. R. W. Church, Bacon, iii. 61. The shrewd and supple lawyers who hung on to the Tudor and Stuart Courts.
b. transf. Characterized by ingratiating or fawning complaisance.
1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity, II. ii. Call me not deare, Nor thinke with supple words to smooth the grosenesse Of my abuses.
1649. Milton, Eikon., iii. Wks. 1851, III. 354. By smooth and supple words … to make som beneficial use or other eev’n of his worst miscarriages.
1690. Ld. Lansdowne, Brit. Enchanters, 689. We Britons slight Those supple arts which foreigners delight.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxi. The supple arts by which he had risen in the world.
1841. Emerson, Lect., Man the Reformer, Wks. (Bohn), II. 236. The ways of trade are grown selfish to the borders of theft, and supple to the borders … of fraud.
6. Sc. Clever; cunning.
1715. Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk Gr., II. ix. A souple taylor to his trade.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. xii. It’s Gil Hobson, the souple tailor frae Burgh.
† 7. Of oil: That renders pliant or flexible; suppling. Also in fig. context. Obs. rare.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1595), 12. Bring … sowple oyle, his bodie for to baste.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ignoto, Wks. 1850, III. 263. I cannot dally, caper, dance, and sing, Oiling my saint with supple sonnetting.
1600. Heywood, 2nd Pt. Edw. IV., Wks. 1874, I. 96. His defiance and his dare to warre, We swallow with the supple oil of peace.
8. Comb.: parasynthetic, as supple-chapped, -kneed, -limbed, -minded, -mouthed, -sinewed, -visaged; advb., as supple-sliding, working adjs.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., Induct., Wks. 1856, I. 3. A *supple-chapt flatterer.
1888. J. Payn, Myst. Mirbridge, vii. This crowd of *supple-kneed dependents.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, xvii. The grisly old man at the helm … and the boy, *supple-limbed, yet weather-worn already.
1882. ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 205. A large, sinewy, supple-limbed man.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 380. A verie gentle and *supple-minded Zelmane.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, 168. Some *supple mouth’d slaue … striuing to vilefie My dark reproofes.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 169. Iron-jointed, *supple-sinew’d, they shall dive. Ibid. (1860), Sea Dreams, 164. My eyes … Read rascal in the motions of his back, And scoundrel in the *supple-sliding knee.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, IX. iii. ¶ 2. The part of a *supple visaged son-in-law sat upon me to perfection.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, III. vii. (Skeat), l. 103–4. The even draught of the wyr-drawer maketh the wyr to ben even and *supple-werchinge.
