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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
Jake Henry Smith, Glamour, 9 Oct. 2025
Gone are the days of being a svelte 20-something with a high metabolism!
—Francesca Krempa, StyleCaster, 4 Oct. 2025
To preserve the svelte look, rather than appearing boxy, the floor-to-ceiling glass panels on the upper deck are subtly kinked to maintain the racing lines.
—Tristan Rutherford, Robb Report, 26 Sep. 2025
Each entrant is numbered and photographed twice during the year with a svelte before photo usually taken in June or July and a hefty after photo taken in September.
—Michael Cappetta, Travel + Leisure, 24 Sep. 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 31 Oct. 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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