English Dictionary

AGILE

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IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does agile mean? 

AGILE (adjective)
  The adjective AGILE has 2 senses:

1. moving quickly and lightlyplay

2. mentally quickplay

  Familiarity information: AGILE used as an adjective is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


AGILE (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Moving quickly and lightly

Synonyms:

agile; nimble; quick; spry

Context example:

the old dog was so spry it was halfway up the stairs before we could stop it

Similar:

active (characterized by energetic activity)

Derivation:

agility (the gracefulness of a person or animal that is quick and nimble)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Mentally quick

Synonyms:

agile; nimble

Context example:

nimble wits

Similar:

intelligent (having the capacity for thought and reason especially to a high degree)


 Context examples 


The Old English Sheepdog is a large, squarely proportioned, agile dog with a profuse, shaggy coat.

(Old English Sheepdog, NCI Thesaurus)

I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Silver, agile as a monkey even without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment and had twice buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenceless body.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Now was the time for the purer living and the more agile limb to show their value.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Ibizan Hound is an agile, deer-like, athletic hound that has a long, arched neck, long wedge-shaped head, and very large, triangular ears which stand up when the dog is alert.

(Ibizan Hound, NCI Thesaurus)

The Collie is an active and agile, long-coated sheepdog.

(Collie, NCI Thesaurus)

He was a fine figure of a man, tall, lithe, and agile, with a springy step and a pleasant, open face.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We're warm-blooded and agile in comparison with our reptilian relatives.

(What makes a mammal a mammal? Our spine, say scientists, National Science Foundation)

Its teeth, eye sockets, braincase, and inner ear revealed that Vintana was likely a large-eyed herbivore that was agile, with keen senses of hearing and smell.

(Scientists discover fossil of bizarre groundhog-like mammal on Madagascar, NSF)

I obeyed: joy made me agile: I sprang up before him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"A picture is worth a thousand words." (English proverb)

"Have not want not." (Lee Field Walstad)

"The envious was created only to be infuriated." (Arabic proverb)

"An open path never seems long." (Corsican proverb)



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