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In Death on the Rocks, a 2013 mystery novel by Deryn Lake, the hero John Rawlings is described as having “svelte eyebrows” (he raises them also in 1995’s Death at the Beggar’s Opera). Lake’s oeuvre notwithstanding, svelte is not an adjective commonly applied to eyebrows, though it’s perfectly appropriate to do so—one of the word’s meanings is “sleek,” and it is often used to describe such disparate things as gowns and sports cars having clean lines. But “svelte eyebrows” also makes etymological sense; svelte came to English (by way of French) from the Italian adjective svelto, which itself comes from the verb svellere, meaning “to pluck out.” Since its debut in English in the early 19th century, however, svelte has more often been used with its original meaning to describe a person’s body—not just the tufts of hair above their eyes—as slender, graceful, or lithe.
Examples of svelte in a Sentence
Dan Schlossberg, Forbes.com, 28 Apr. 2025
Kylie showed off her svelte figure, her bare face — freckles and all — and undone hair.
—Catherine Santino, People.com, 24 Mar. 2025
The Ferrari weighs in at 1,467 kilograms (3,234 pounds), unusually svelte for a hybrid, which aids its sharp handling.
—IEEE Spectrum, 6 Jan. 2025
But the cost of that 5.5mm svelte design could come at the cost of symmetry on the base of the phone.
—David Phelan, Forbes.com, 3 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for svelte
Cite this Entry
“Svelte.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/svelte. Accessed 20 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
from French svelte "slender, sleek," from Italian svelto (same meaning), derived from svellere "to pluck out," derived from Latin evellere "to pluck"
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