| English Dictionary |
PLIABLE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does pliable mean?
• PLIABLE (adjective)
The adjective PLIABLE has 4 senses:
1. susceptible to being led or directed
2. capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out
3. able to adjust readily to different conditions
4. capable of being bent or flexed or twisted without breaking
Familiarity information: PLIABLE used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Susceptible to being led or directed
Synonyms:
fictile; pliable
Context example:
fictile masses of people ripe for propaganda
Similar:
susceptible ((often followed by 'of' or 'to') yielding readily to or capable of)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out
Synonyms:
ductile; malleable; pliable; pliant; tensile; tractile
Context example:
made of highly tensile steel alloy
Similar:
formed (having or given a form or shape)
Derivation:
pliability (the property of being easily bent without breaking)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Able to adjust readily to different conditions
Synonyms:
elastic; flexible; pliable; pliant
Context example:
an elastic clause in a contract
Similar:
adaptable (capable of adapting (of becoming or being made suitable) to a particular situation or use)
Derivation:
pliability (adaptability of mind or character)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Capable of being bent or flexed or twisted without breaking
Synonyms:
bendable; pliable; pliant; waxy
Context example:
a pliant young tree
Similar:
flexible; flexile (able to flex; able to bend easily)
Derivation:
pliability (the property of being easily bent without breaking)
Context examples
A thin sheet or layer of pliable tissue, serving as a covering or envelope of a part, as the lining of a cavity, as a partition or septum, or to connect two structures.
(Membrane, NCI Thesaurus)
A substance added to plastics or other materials to make or keep them soft or pliable.
(Plasticizer, NCI Thesaurus)
A thin pliable sheet separating organelles from the protoplasm.
(Intracellular Membrane, NCI Thesaurus)
A device problem that occurred when its material is either too flexible/pliable or inflexible/rigid when in contact by an applied force.
(Device Stiffness Problem Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)
If I'd put in the same years cow-punching, with my body young and pliable, I wouldn't be rolling now, but I'd be bow-legged.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
That temperature rise, in turn, caused the shape memory polymer matrix to soften and become pliable.
(Tiny magnetic particles enable new material to bend, twist and grab, National Science Foundation)
Any component of the thin sheet or layer of pliable tissue, serving as a covering or envelope of a part, as the lining of a cavity, as a partition or septum, or to connect two structures.
(Membrane Part, NCI Thesaurus)
When one's body is young, it is very pliable, and hard work will mould it like putty according to the nature of the work.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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