sylphlike

English

Etymology

sylph +‎ -like

Adjective

sylphlike (comparative more sylphlike, superlative most sylphlike)

1. Resembling (that of) a sylph; slender and graceful.
   • 1811, Percy Bysshe Shelley, chapter IV, in St. Irvyne‎^[1]:

     Soon advancing through the hall, he saw the sylphlike figure of the lovely Olympia […]

   • 1821, Lord Byron, Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice‎^[2], act IV, lines 57–61:

     […] the thin robes
     Floating like light clouds ’twixt our gaze and heaven;
     The many-twinkling feet so small and sylphlike,
     Suggesting the more secret symmetry
     Of the fair forms which terminate so well—

   • 1988, Edmund White, chapter 4, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994:

     Once Tex had said to me, very sister-to-sister, “Aren’t we mad, we gay boys, starving ourselves to sylphlike fragility, all so we can attract a straight cop with a beer belly?”

   • 2001 December 2, “Emily Eakin, The Way We Live Now: 12-02-01: Phenomenon; Tiny Dancers”, in The New York Times:

     Here we see a few of the 48 diminutive hopefuls who showed up that day, awaiting their turn to impress the judges with a high instep or a particularly sylphlike extension.