lissom, a.
(ˈlɪsəm)
Also lissome.
[Contracted variant of lithesome.]
a. Supple, limber; lithesome; lithe and agile.
| a 1800 Pegge Suppl. to Grose (1814) 34 Lissom, limber, relaxed, North. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. 147 They are..so much more athletic, and yet so much lissomer—to use a Hampshire phrase, which deserves at least to be good English. 1825 Britton Beauties Wiltsh. III. 375 Lithesome, or Lissome, soft, pliable; expert in action. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 135 Back flew the bolt of lissom lath. 1855 Tennyson Brook 70 Straight, but as lissome as a hazel wand. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 11 The lissom bound of the hare. 1890 ‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Miner's Right (1899) 187/1 The tongues grow lissom under the influence of good fellowship and potent liquor. |
| fig. 1859 Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. I. viii. 227 His [Ovid's] lissome lines are droned over. |
b. That renders supple.
nonce-use.
| 1864 Ld. Derby Iliad xviii. 389 They wash'd the corpse, With lissom oils anointing. |
Hence
ˈlissomely adv.;
ˈlissomness.
| 1857 Hughes Tom Brown ii. iii. (1871) 264 He..was applauded by all for his lissomness. 1895 Saintsbury Corrected Impressions xv. 142 His..marvellous lissomeness..of thought. 1902 W. de la Mare Songs of Childhood 54 Though danced she lissomely. 1927 M. Sadleir Trollope: a Comm. 322 Trollope worried to find it limping on its way, when usually his stories moved so lissomely. |