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Svelte

(pronounced svelt or sfelt)  adjective

Definition

1. (of a person or thing) trim and graceful in outline; slender; lithe.    2. suave; urbane; having all the social graces; smooth in performance or style.

Main Example

• As happens every January, the annual Consumer Electronics Show made the news last month. And, as in past years, every new product--be it a television, computer, camera, or cell phone--was more svelte than its predecessor model. Why? Because, to quote Marketplace, "how a product looks is as important as what it can do."

Workplace Examples

• Our vice president of sales is very widely traveled and full of worldly sophistication. He can maintain his poise in any setting--be it the most swank hotel in London, or a cow dung-strewn street in a remote village in India. That guy is uncommonly svelte!



• Look, unlike the slender you, I am not svelte. There is no way I am going to fit into any of your dresses.

Other Examples

• a colleague saying: "Chris is a svelte consensus builder! He possesses this remarkable ability to deal with others easily and without friction, no matter how opposing and vehement their views."
• a new CEO saying: "One of my top priorities is to eliminate our layers and layers of bureaucratic fat . . . to make our company so lean and nimble that if Fortune magazine ranked companies on svelteness, we'd be No. 1."
• a svelte automobile; the svelte models featured in women's fashion magazines; the deceptive ads for all kinds of potions that promise to make you svelte without any pain or exercise
• for his extremely polished manners and other fine qualities, the late George Plimpton being described by his many admirers as perhaps the most svelte person they ever knew

© 2005 V.J. Singal

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