subtly

• subtlely
• subtilly (obsolete)

From Middle English sotilly; equivalent to subtle +‎ -ly.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌt.li/, /ˈsʌ.tl̩.li/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌt.l̩.li/, sometimes IPA^(key): /ˈsʌt.li/

subtly (comparative more subtly, superlative most subtly)

1. With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.
   • 1533, Erasmus of Roterdame, “The Thyrde Instruction”, in anonymous translator, A Playne and Godly Exposytion or Declaration of the Commune Crede (which in the Latin Tonge is Called Symbolum Apostolorum): And of the .x. Commaundementes of Goddes Law. […], London: […] Robert Redman, […] [for William Marshall], →OCLC, folio 66, verso:

     Nexte cometh Arrius by ſoo muche the more wretched and madde in opynyon, by howe muche he dothe more ſubtely and craftily geue unto Chriſt the body of a man, and taketh from hym the ſowle of a man, […]

   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC, II. part, page 104:

     For though Contraria iuxta ſe poſita magis illuceſcunt [opposites placed next to each other shine more brightly] (by an olde Rule) yet it hath beene ſubtilly, and indeede truely noted that our Sight, is not vvell contented, vvith thoſe ſudden departments, from one extreame to another; Therefore let them haue, rather a Duskiſh Tincture, then an abſolute blacke.

   • 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.

• bustly, butyls