pliant

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: pli=ant

CIDE DICTIONARY

pliant, a. [F. pliant, p. pr. of plier to bend. See Ply, v.].

•  Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking; flexible; pliable; lithe; limber; plastic; as, a pliant thread; pliant wax. Also used figuratively: Easily influenced for good or evil; tractable; as, a pliant heart.  [1913 Webster]

  "The will was then ductile and pliant to right reason."  [1913 Webster]
•  Favorable to pliancy.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pliant, adj. = PLIABLE 1.

Derivative

pliancy n. pliantly adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF (as PLIABLE)

THESAURUS

pliant

accessible, acquiescent, adaptable, adaptive, adjustable, agreeable, alacritous, amenable, ardent, bendable, bending, biddable, complaisant, compliant, conformable, consenting, content, convenient, cooperative, disposed, docile, ductile, eager, elastic, enthusiastic, extensible, extensile, fabricable, facile, fain, favorable, favorably disposed, favorably inclined, feasible, fictile, flexible, flexile, flexuous, foolproof, formable, formative, forward, game, giving, handy, impressible, impressionable, in the mind, in the mood, inclined, influenceable, like putty, limber, lissome, lithe, lithesome, malleable, manageable, maneuverable, minded, moldable, movable, obedient, open, open-minded, other-directed, persuadable, persuasible, pervious, plastic, pliable, practical, predisposed, prompt, prone, quick, ready, ready and willing, receptive, responsive, sensitive, sequacious, shapable, spongy, springy, suasible, submissive, suggestible, supple, susceptible, swayable, tractable, tractile, unaustere, undemanding, unexacting, unharsh, unsevere, unstrict, untroublesome, weak, well-disposed, well-inclined, whippy, wieldable, wieldy, willed, willing, willinghearted, willowy, yielding, zealous

ROGET THESAURUS

pliant

Irresolution

N irresolution, infirmity of purpose, indecision, indetermination, undetermination, unsettlement, uncertainty, demur, suspense, hesitating, hesitation, hesitancy, vacillation, changeableness, fluctuation, alternation, caprice, fickleness, levity, legerete, pliancy, weakness, timidity, cowardice, half measures, waverer, ass between two bundles of hay, shuttlecock, butterfly, wimp, doughface, irresolute, infirm of purpose, double-minded, half-hearted, undecided, unresolved, undetermined, shilly-shally, fidgety, tremulous, hesitating, off one's balance, at a loss, vacillating, unsteady, unsteadfast, fickle, without ballast, capricious, volatile, frothy, light, lightsome, light-minded, giddy, fast and loose, weak, feeble-minded, frail, timid, wimpish, wimpy, cowardly, dough-faced, facile, pliant, unable to say 'no', easy-going revocable, reversible, irresolutely, irresolved, irresolvedly, in faltering accents, off and on, from pillar to post, seesaw, Int, how happy could I be with either!.

Facility

N facility, ease, easiness, capability, feasibility, flexibility, pliancy, smoothness, plain sailing, smooth sailing, straight sailing, mere child's play, holiday task, cinch, smooth water, fair wind, smooth royal road, clear coast, clear stage, tabula rasa, full play, disencumbrance, disentanglement, deoppilation, permission, simplicity, lack of complication, easy, facile, feasible, easily managed, easily accomplished, within reach, accessible, easy of access, for the million, open to, manageable, wieldy, towardly, tractable, submissive, yielding, ductile, suant, pliant, glib, slippery, smooth, on friction wheels, on velvet, unembarrassed, disburdened, unburdened, disencumbered, unencumbered, disembarrassed, exonerated, unloaded, unobstructed, untrammeled, unrestrained, at ease, light, at home with, quite at home, in one's element, in smooth water, skillful, accustomed, easily, readily, smoothly, swimmingly, on easy terms, single-handed, touch and go.

Submission

N submission, yielding, nonresistance, obedience, surrender, cession, capitulation, resignation, backdown, obeisance, homage, kneeling, genuflexion, courtesy, curtsy, kowtow, prostration, surrendering, submissive, resigned, crouching, downtrodden, down on one's marrow bones, on one's bended knee, unresistant, unresisting, nonresisting, pliant, undefended, untenable, indefensible, humble, have it your own way, it can't be helped, amen, da locum melioribus, tempori parendum.

Obedience

N obedience, observance, compliance, submission, subjection, nonresistance, passiveness, resignation, allegiance, loyalty, fealty, homage, deference, devotion, constancy, fidelity, submissness, submissiveness, ductility, obsequiousness, obedient, complying, compliant, loyal, faithful, devoted, at one's call, at one's command, at one's orders, at one's beck and call, under beck and call, under control, restrainable, resigned, passive, submissive, henpecked, pliant, unresisted, obediently, in compliance with, in obedience to, to hear is to obey, as you please, if you please, your wish is my command, as you wish, no sooner said than done.

Servility

N servility, slavery, obsequiousness, subserviency, abasement, prostration, prosternation, genuflection, fawning, tuft- hunting, timeserving, flunkeyism, sycophancy, humility, sycophant, parasite, toad, toady, toad-eater, tufthunter, snob, flunky, flunkey, yes-man, lapdog, spaniel, lickspittle, smell-feast, Graeculus esuriens, hanger on, cavaliere servente, led captain, carpet knight, timeserver, fortune hunter, Vicar of Bray, Sir- Pertinax, Max Sycophant, pickthank, flatterer, doer of dirty work, ame damnee, tool, reptile, slave, courtier, beat, dead beat, doughface, heeler, homme de cour, sponger, sucker, tagtail, truckler, servile, obsequious, supple, supple as a glove, soapy, oily, pliant, cringing, abased, dough-faced, fawning, slavish, groveling, sniveling, mealy-mouthed, beggarly, sycophantic, parasitical, abject, prostrate, down on ones marrowbones, base, mean, sneaking, crouching, hat in hand, cap in hand.

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.