sylphlike

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English

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Etymology

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From sylph +‎ -like.

Adjective

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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.