Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young or diminutive sylph.
  • adjective Relating to or resembling a sylph.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A diminutive of sylph. Also spelled sylphide, and sometimes used adjectively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A little sylph; a young or diminutive sylph.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun poetic A young or little sylph.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French sylphide, from sylphe, sylph, from New Latin sylpha; see sylph.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French sylphide. See sylph.

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Examples

  • Grisi, gimp-waisted sylphid, here skips for posterity.

    Yet Again Max Beerbohm 1914

  • "Your fairy, the one you call Whisper, has taken care of it for your sake," said the sister sylphid.

    Fairy Book Sophie May 1869

  • Then, intwining arms with a bright sylphid, she flew with her over the gardens in a trance of delight.

    Fairy Book Sophie May 1869

  • "You fancy you were once a sylphid," said he; "but there are no sylphids, my sweet one, and there is no Summer-land."

    Fairy Book Sophie May 1869

  • A nymph must rise from the stream, a sylphid from the rose, before I could allow another to steal you from my side.

    Lucretia — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • A nymph must rise from the stream, a sylphid from the rose, before I could allow another to steal you from my side.

    Lucretia — Volume 05 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Stein brought along her poodle, Basket, who posed alongside Stein and one of Balmain's sylphid models.

    News 2012

  • "A robe of white, confined loosely to her waist by a vari-colored sash, which drooped gracefully to catch up the folds in front, clung softly to her figure in sylphid revelation of the matchless proportions it could never conceal.

    The Flaw in the Sapphire Charles M. Snyder

  • I love the twinkle in your eye; and I am so glad it is you, and no one else, who is my papa; but just the same, and forevermore, I shall keep saying, _I was a sylphid_! "

    Fairy Book Sophie May 1869

  • "If I am a sylphid, perhaps my home is over the hills, and far away.

    Fairy Book Sophie May 1869

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