Definition of "subtilize" []

• To render subtle: "I need to tell stories. I find new friends, new listeners, subtilize my lies” ( Helen Yglesias). (verb-transitive)
• To argue or discuss with subtlety; make fine distinctions. (verb-intransitive)

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.

• "And if reputation and reward shall attend these conquests, which depend mostly on the fineness and niceties of words, it is no wonder if the wit of man so employed, should perplex, involve, and subtilize the signification of sounds, so as never to want something to say in opposing or defending any question; the victory being adjudged not to him who had truth on his side, but the last word in the dispute."
• "Remember they are trying to subtilize, trying to eliminate the gross, and are trying to make everything in which the Light can function."
• "Humboldt considers the Mexican Indian as destitute of all imagination, though when to a certain degree educated, he attributes to him facility in learning, a clearness of understanding, a natural turn for reasoning, and a particular aptitude to subtilize and seize trifling distinctions."