• (RP, GA) IPA: /ˈlɪsəm/

lissom (comparative lissomer, superlative lissomest)

1. Flexible and graceful in movement; lithe.

   Synonyms: limber, lithesome, supple, Thesaurus:flexible

   • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “The Brook; an Idyl”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 1013215631 ↗, page 105 ↗:

     Straight, but as lissome as a hazel wand; / Her eyes a bashful azure, and her hair / In gloss and hue the chestnut, when the shell / Divides threefold to show th'fruit within.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], OCLC 911789798 ↗, pages 104–105 ↗:

     [A] robe / Of samite without price, that more exprest / Than hid her, clung about her lissome limbs, / In colour like the satin-shining palm / On sallows in the windy gleams of March: [...]

   • 1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “A Tempest in the School Teapot”, in Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, published August 1909 (11th printing), OCLC 270822977 ↗, page 149 ↗:

     It was a little narrow, twisting path, [...] It was fringed in all its length with slim young birches, white-stemmed and lissom boughed; [...]

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855 ↗:

     Well, let me tell you, Jeeves, and you can paste this in your hat, shapeliness isn't everything in this world. In fact, it sometimes seems to me that the more curved and lissome the members of the opposite sex, the more likely they are to set Hell's foundations quivering.

• lithe
• lithely
• litheness
• lithesome