Literary notes about nimble (AI summary)
In literature, the word nimble is employed to evoke a sense of quick, agile movement or speed, whether describing the graceful escape of a hunted animal or the lively dexterity of a character. For instance, it often characterizes a creature's effortless evasion from capture, as when a fawn or roe darts away from pursuing hunters [1][2][3]. At the same time, writers use nimble to illustrate precision and mental agility—capturing both the physical dexterity of a skillful seamstress or a quick-fingered person [4][5][6] and the metaphorical briskness of thought or wit [7][8]. This versatility allows the adjective to enrich both action sequences and character portrayals across a range of genres, from mythic epics and fairy tales to philosophical musings and poetic expressions [9][10][11].
- When the King and his huntsmen saw him again, the Fawn with the golden necklace, they followed him, close, but he was too nimble and quick for them.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - As soon as the King and his huntsmen saw the Roe with the golden collar they all rode off after it, but it was far too quick and nimble for them.
— from The Red Fairy Book - When the King and his huntsmen again saw the young roebuck with the golden collar, they all chased him, but he was too quick and nimble for them.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - Yet Charley was uncommonly expert at other things and had as nimble little fingers as I ever watched.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - here they both are,’ cried my mother, looking round upon us without retarding the motion of her nimble fingers and glittering needles.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - She was a nimble little needlewoman, and they were finished before anyone got tired of them.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - discreto discreet; bright, witty, nimble-witted.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós - Was it not possible that his nimble and speculative mind had built up this wild theory upon faulty premises?
— from The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle - Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw Love, And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
— from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - The nimble spirits in the arteries, As motion and long-during action tires The sinewy vigour of the traveller.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - I love a poetic progress, by leaps and skips; ‘tis an art, as Plato says, light, nimble, demoniac.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne
