Definition of "simple" []

• Having or composed of only one thing, element, or part. See Synonyms at pure. (adjective)
• Not involved or complicated; easy: a simple task. See Synonyms at easy. (adjective)
• Being without additions or modifications; mere: a simple "yes” or "no.” (adjective)
• Having little or no ornamentation; not embellished or adorned: a simple dress. (adjective)
• Not elaborate, elegant, or luxurious. See Synonyms at plain. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Having confused physical with linguistic or expressive facts, and observing that, in the order of ideas, the simple precedes the complex, they necessarily ended by thinking that _the smaller_ physical facts were _the more simple_."
• "When I once told a sceptical friend about Miss Florence Cook's séance, and added, triumphantly, "Why, she's a pretty little simple girl of sixteen," that clenched the doubts of this Thomas at once, for he rejoined, "What is there that a pretty little _simple_ girl of sixteen won't do?""
• "Commerce, III, 4, I, even the simple bankrupt in contradistinction to the fraudulent bankrupt is punished, and every person unable to pay his debts is declared a _simple_ bankrupt, who, among other things, has made excessive household expenses, or lost considerable sums by play etc."