superˈsubtle, -ˈsubtile, a.
[super- 9 a.]
Extremely or excessively subtle; over-subtle.
| 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 104 Admiring them in the rest of their super-subtill inventions. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 363 A fraile vow, betwixt an erring Barbarian, and a super-subtle Venetian. 1614 Purchas Pilgrimage ii. xii. (ed. 2) 175 The Cabalist as a super subtile transcendent, mounteth..from this sensible world vnto that other intellectuall. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Child Angel, By reason that Mature Humanity is too gross to breathe the air of that super-subtile region. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 106–7 Over-informed, super-subtle, too clever for her age. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 75 The super-subtile fancies of theosophy. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times II. xxiv. 211 A tendency to over-refining and super⁓subtle argument. |
So superˈsubtilize v. trans., to make over-subtle; superˈsubtlety, excessive subtlety.
| 1858 Masson Milton I. vi. 443 In him [sc. Donne] there were gathered up..all the tips and clippings of super-subtlety among the Elizabethans. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 245 The filigree of wire-drawn sentiment and supersubtilized conceit. |