All 19 Uses of

subtle

in

Moby Dick

When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form.†
Chpt 40-42

Of all the wondrous devices and dexterities, the sleights of hand and countless subtleties, to which the veteran whaleman is so often forced, none exceed that fine manoeuvre with the lance called pitchpoling.†
Chpt 82-84 *

subtleties = things that are not obvious, but noticeable by someone with adequate sensitivity and relevant knowledge

This was strangely heightened at times by the ragged Elijah's diabolical incoherences uninvitedly recurring to me, with a subtle energy I could not have before conceived of.†
Chpt 28-30

And all these subtle agencies, more and more they wrought on Ahab's texture.†
Chpt 28-30

Gifted with the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most subtly and most malignantly!†
Chpt 37-39

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.†
Chpt 40-42

But in a matter like this, subtlety appeals to subtlety, and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls.†
Chpt 40-42

But in a matter like this, subtlety appeals to subtlety, and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls.†
Chpt 40-42

Not only that, but the subtle insanity of Ahab respecting Moby Dick was noways more significantly manifested than in his superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing that, for the present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of that strange imaginative impiousness which naturally invested it; that the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure background (for few men's courage is proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action); that when they stood their long night watches, his officers and men must have some nearer things to think of than Moby Dick.†
Chpt 46-48

But when Steelkilt made known his determination still to lead them to the last, they in some way, by some subtle chemistry of villany, mixed their before secret treacheries together; and when their leader fell into a doze, verbally opened their souls to each other in three sentences; and bound the sleeper with cords, and gagged him with cords; and shrieked out for the Captain at midnight.†
Chpt 52-54

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure.†
Chpt 58-60

All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.†
Chpt 58-60

True, both his eyes, in themselves, must simultaneously act; but is his brain so much more comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man's, that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects, one on one side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction?†
Chpt 73-75

If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant's face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale's brow?†
Chpt 79-81

Such is the subtle elasticity of the organ I treat of, that whether wielded in sport, or in earnest, or in anger, whatever be the mood it be in, its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace.†
Chpt 85-87

In this central expanse the sea presented that smooth satin-like surface, called a sleek, produced by the subtle moisture thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods.†
Chpt 85-87

Some of the subtlest secrets of the seas seemed divulged to us in this enchanted pond.†
Chpt 85-87

then, be heedful; for so, in all this din of the great world's loom, thy subtlest thinkings may be overheard afar.†
Chpt 100-102

If he did not have a common soul in him, he had a subtle something that somehow anomalously did its duty.†
Chpt 106-108 *

Definitions:

(1) (subtle as in: a subtle poison)
working in an indirect or hidden way
(2) (subtle as in: a subtle shade of blue)
understated so as not to draw excess attention
(3) (subtle as in: a subtle difference or thinker)
not obvious, but understandable by someone with adequate sensitivity and relevant knowledge (perhaps depending upon fine distinctions)

or:

capable of understanding things that require sensitivity and relevant knowledge (perhaps understanding fine distinctions)