Dictionary entry

Flexible

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Flex″i‐ble (?), a. [L. flexibilis: cf. F. flexible.] 1. Capable of being flexed or bent; admitting of being turned, bowed, or twisted, without breaking; pliable; yielding to pressure; not stiff or brittle.

When the splitting wind

Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks. Shak.

2. Willing or ready to yield to the influence of others; not invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable; ductile; easy and compliant; wavering.

Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people. Bacon.

Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible. Shak.

3. Capable or being adapted or molded; plastic,; as, a flexible language.

This was a principle more flexible to their purpose. Rogers.

Syn. — Pliant; pliable; supple; tractable; manageable; ductile; obsequious; inconstant; wavering.

— Flex″i‐ble‐ness, n. — Flex″i‐bly, adv.