What does "facile" mean?
Facile: Easy to be surmounted or removed; easily conquerable; readily mastered. The facile gates of hell too slightly barred. Milton.
Additional senses
- 2.Easy of access or converse; mild; courteous; not haughty, austere, or distant; affable; complaisant. I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet. B. Jonson.
- 3.Easily persuaded to good or bad; yielding; ductile to a fault; pliant; flexible. Since Adam, and his facile consort Eve, Lost Paradise, deceived by me. Milton. This is treating Burns like a child, a person of so facile a disposition as not to be trusted without a keeper on the king's highway. Prof. Wilson.
- 4.Ready; quick; expert; as, he is facile in expedients; he wields a facile pen. -- Fac"ile-ly, adv. -- Fac"ile*ness, n.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17 · Modified: 2026-07-17