Flexible

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Flexible \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.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              When the splitting wind
              Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Willing or ready to yield to the influence of others; not
        invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable;
        ductile; easy and compliant; wavering.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways
              flexible to the will of the people.   --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Capable or being adapted or molded; plastic,; as, a
        flexible language.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              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.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  flexible
       adj 1: extended meanings; capable of change; "a flexible
              character"; "flexible schedules" [ant: {inflexible}]
       2: able to flex; able to bend easily; "slim flexible birches"
          [syn: {flexile}] [ant: {inflexible}]
       3: able to adjust readily to different conditions; "an
          adaptable person"; "a flexible personality"; "an elastic
          clause in a contract" [syn: {elastic}, {pliable}, {pliant}]
       4: bending and snapping back readily without breaking
       5: making or willing to make concessions; "loneliness tore
          through him...whenever he thought of...even the
          compromising Louis du Tillet" [syn: {compromising}, {conciliatory}]
          [ant: {uncompromising}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  129 Moby Thesaurus words for "flexible":
     able to adapt, acquiescent, adaptable, adaptive, adjustable,
     all-around, alterable, alterative, ambidextrous, amenable,
     amphibious, bendable, bending, biddable, bouncy, buoyant,
     changeable, checkered, complaisant, compliant, conformable,
     convenient, cooperative, creased, crimped, docile, dog-eared,
     doubled, ductile, easy, elastic, ever-changing, extensible,
     extensile, fabricable, facile, feasible, fictile, flexile,
     flexuous, flounced, fluid, fluted, foldable, folded, folding,
     foolproof, formable, formative, gathered, generally capable,
     giving, handy, impermanent, impressible, impressionable,
     kaleidoscopic, like putty, limber, lissome, lithe, lithesome,
     lively, malleable, manageable, maneuverable, many-sided,
     metamorphic, mobile, modifiable, moldable, movable, mutable,
     nonuniform, obedient, other-directed, permutable, persuadable,
     persuasible, plaited, plastic, pleated, pliable, pliant, plicate,
     plicated, plicatile, practical, protean, proteiform, quilled,
     receptive, resilient, resourceful, responsive, rubbery, ruffled,
     sensitive, sequacious, shapable, springy, stretch, stretchable,
     stretchy, submissive, supple, susceptible, tensile, tractable,
     tractile, transient, transitory, tucked, twilled, two-handed,
     unaustere, undemanding, unexacting, unharsh, unsevere, unstrict,
     untroublesome, variable, versatile, whippy, wieldable, wieldy,
     willowy, yielding