flexible

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: flex=i=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

flexible, a. [L. flexibilis: cf. F. flexible.].

•  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."  [1913 Webster]
•  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."  [1913 Webster]

  "Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible."  [1913 Webster]
•  Capable or being adapted or molded; plastic,; as, a flexible language.  [1913 Webster]

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

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

OXFORD DICTIONARY

flexible, adj.
1 able to bend without breaking; pliable; pliant.
2 easily led; manageable; docile.
3 adaptable; versatile; variable (works flexible hours).

Derivative

flexibility n. flexibly adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF flexible or L flexibilis (as FLEX(1))

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

flexible

Softness

N softness, pliableness, flexibility, pliancy, pliability, sequacity, malleability, ductility, tractility, extendibility, extensibility, plasticity, inelasticity, flaccidity, laxity, penetrability, clay, wax, butter, dough, pudding, alumina, argil, cushion, pillow, feather bed, down, padding, wadding, foam, mollification, softening, soft, tender, supple, pliant, pliable, flexible, flexile, lithe, lithesome, lissom, limber, plastic, ductile, tractile, tractable, malleable, extensile, sequacious, inelastic, aluminous, remollient, yielding, flabby, limp, flimsy, doughy, spongy, penetrable, foamy, cushiony, flaccid, flocculent, downy, edematous, oedematous, medullary, argillaceous, mellow, soft as butter, soft as down, soft as silk, yielding as wax, tender as chicken.

Elasticity

N elasticity, springiness, spring, resilience, renitency, buoyancy, rubber, India rubber, Indian rubber, latex, caoutchouc, whalebone, gum elastic, baleen, natural rubber, neoprene, synthetic rubber, Buna- S, plastic, flexibility, Young's modulus, elastic, flexible, tensile, spring, resilient, renitent, buoyant, ductile, stretchable, extendable, the stress is proportional to the strain.