[a. F. flexibilité, ad. L. flexibilitāt-em, f. flexibilis: see FLEXIBLE and -ITY.] The quality of being flexible.
1. Capability of being bent; pliancy.
1616. Bullokar, Flexibilitie, aptnes to bend.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 359. Smaller Tents must not be put in, because of their flexibility.
1796. Brougham, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 234–5. Having thus found that the parts of light differ in flexibility, I wished next to learn two things; in what proportion the angle of inflection is to that of deflection at equal incidences; and secondly, what proportion the different flexibilities of the different rays bear to one another.
1859–60. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk. (1873), II. II. ii. 234. His elocution corresponded to that strength and flexibility of limb, that quickness of eye, hand, and foot, by which a man excels in manly games or in mechanical skill.
† b. The quality of yielding to pressure. Obs.
1677. Horneck, Gt. Law Consid., vi. (1704), 339. When this Air yields to all gross Bodies, and lets them pass without opposition, how doth it read to thee Lectures of Patience and Humility? In that Flexibility, thou mayest see the sinfulness of thy inexorable temper, the odiousness of thy revengeful desires, and reviling again when thou art reviled, and giving the Offender as good as he brings.
2. Susceptibility of modification or alteration; capacity for ready adaptation to various purposes or conditions; freedom from stiffness or rigidity.
1783. Blair, Lect. Rhet., I. ix. 175. The flexibility of a Language, or its power of accommodation to different styles and manners.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 54. It [Swedish] is characterized by force and energy; and though it has not that softness and flexibility, which are found in other languages, they are not, however, incompatible with its genius.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xi. 46. Another important provision by which Solon endeavoured to secure the stability of his institutions, without depriving them of the flexibility necessary for a continual adaptation to altered circumstances, consisted in the regulations by which he subjected them to a perpetual revision.
1865. M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., ii. (1875), 57. Openness of mind and flexibility of intelligence were very signal characteristics of the Athenian people in ancient times.
1871. Markby, Elem. Law, § 59. Its [judiciary law’s] great, though possibly its only advantage—that of flexibility, or capacity of being adapted to any new combination of circumstances that may arise.
1875. Hamerton, Intell. Life, X. v. 392. Men of exceptional power and very exceptional flexibility may do this with apparent impunity.
b. Of the voice or fingers: Capacity for free, rapid, and varied execution or delivery. Also pl.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., ii. 134. It [old Vocal Music] required no flexibility of throat, or delicacy in the organs of sound.
1807. trans. Gæde’s Trav., II. 218. Mrs. Siddons possesses all the flexibilities of tone.
1848. Rimbault, First Bk. Piano., 43. When the fingers of the right hand have acquired some degree of flexibility.
1848. C. Brontë, J. Eyre, xi. 102. She then declaimed the little piece with an attention to punctuation and emphasis, a flexibility of voice and an appropriateness of gesture, very unusual indeed at her age, and which proved she had been carefully trained.
3. Readiness to yield to influence or persuasion, pliancy of mind or disposition. Const. to.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VII. (1843), 426/1. The flexibility and instability of that gentleman’s nature, not being then understood, or suspected.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 162, 5 Oct., ¶ 6. Thus desirous of peace, and thus fearful of pain, the old man seldom enquires after any other qualities in those whom he caresses, than quickness in conjecturing his desires, activity in supplying his wants, dexterity in intercepting complaints before they approach near enough to disturb him, flexibility to his present humour, submission to hasty petulance, and attention to wearisome narrations.
1772. Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782) I. 151. The longer we live in this life, the more fixed are our habits, and dispositions of mind, so that there is an astonishing difference between the flexibility, as we may call it, of a child, and that of a grown man.
