Both Uses of
supple
in
Jane Eyre
- It was no more the withered limb of eld than my own; it was a rounded supple member, with smooth fingers, symmetrically turned; a broad ring flashed on the little finger, and stooping forward, I looked at it, and saw a gem I had seen a hundred times before.†
p. 234.1 *
- To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts — when they open to me a perspective of flatness, triviality, and perhaps imbecility, coarseness, and ill-temper: but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break — at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent — I am ever tender and true.†
p. 300.9
Definitions:
-
(1)
(supple) moving and bending easily -- sometimes used figuratively to indicate mental flexibility when adapting to different conditions
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, supple can be used metaphorically to describe someone who easily adapts to different situations.