[f. next + -ITY; cf. F. compressibilité.] The quality of being compressible; capability of compression.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 605. The compressibility of sponge.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 502. The extraordinary compressibility of the other viscera.
b. esp. in Physics. The quality in virtue of which the volume of a gas, etc., may be diminished without decrease of its mass.
a. 1691. Boyle, Wks. (1772), III. 507. The great compressibility, if I may so speak, of the air.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 237. The compressibility … of ice is very nearly the same with that of water.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, viii. § 404. 208. As a rule, the compressibility of water in the depths of the sea is one per cent. for every 1000 fathoms.
