Flexible

a. Also 6 flexable, -ibil(l. [a. F. flexible, f. L. flexibil-is, f. flex- ppl. stem of flectĕre to bend.]

  1.  Capable of being bent, admitting of change in figure without breaking; yielding to pressure, pliable, pliant.

1548.  Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 212. Suche is the mutacion of the common people, like a rede with euery wind is agitable & flexible.

1561.  Bulleyn, Bk. Sicke Men, 81 a. Feele also the pacient … whither the partes be pained, or flexable, or haue loste their strength and are stiffe.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 50.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 796. And you shall finde … the Stalke harder and less Flexible, than it was.

1664.  Power, Experimental Philosophy, I. 42. The Lamprey likewise hath no bones: for the spine or back-bone, it hath a Cartilaginous flexible Tube or Channel, without any Vertebrae or Spondyls in it, hollowed or tubulous from one end to the other; in which lay the Spinal Marrow, which was of a serous, thin, and milky substance.

1731.  Arbuthnot, Aliments, ii. (1735), 40. An Animal, in order to be moveable, must be flexible, and therefore is fitly made of separate and small solid Parts replete with proper Fluids.

1802.  Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), II. 373. These parts, with the tail, are covered by a strong flexible skin, which is fixed within, to the edges of the shell.

1823.  W. Phillips, Introd. Min., Introd., 9. A flexible granular quartz is found in Brazil.

1874.  Boutell, Arms & Arm., ii. 17. The long, flexible and pointless weapons that are described by the Roman historians as having been seen in the hands of the same ancient Gauls, when they made their famous raid into Italy.

  † 2.  Of a fluid: Not rigid, yielding. Of winds: Variable in direction, shifting. Obs.

1611.  Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., IV. v. 145. This Countrey seldome feeleth any vnseasonable extremities, the quicke and flexible windes cooling the heat of Summer, and soft and gentle shewers molifie the hardnes of the winter.

1612.  Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., 115. Water being (as it is) heavy and flexible, will slide away at any inequalitie.

1692.  Locke, Educ., § 1. There it is, as in the Fountains of some Rivers, where a gentle Application of the Hand turns the flexible Waters into Channels, that make them take quite contrary Courses; and by this little Direction given them at first in the Source, they receive different Tendencies, and arrive at last at very remote and distant Places.

  3.  † a. That can be ‘bent,’ inclined, or rendered favorable to (obs.). b. Willing or disposed to yield to influence or persuasion; capable of being guided, easily led, impressionable, manageable, tractable.

a. 1420.  Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, 3358. To mercy were her hertes ay flexible.

1533.  Frith, Answ. Fisher (1829), 189. Our judge, therefore, must not be partial, flexible, nor ignorant (and so are all natural men excluded); but he must be unalterable, even searching the bottom and ground of all things.

1548.  Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 199 b. Open to him (if he sawe hym flexible to his purpose) the secrete imaginacions of his stomacke.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., I. iv. 141.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. v. (1632), 38. They saw both heauen & earth flexible to their deliuerance.

1642.  Newcomen, Serm. bef. Ho. Com., 5 Nov. (1643), 6. The tender and flexible age of her son.

1667.  Decay Chr. Piety, xvi. ¶ 2. It found proselytes, not only among the Vulgar, who are commonly flexible to any new Impression, but amongst those of a higher rank, men that were lights in their generation.

1727.  Philip Quarll, 139. Quarll, being of a compassionate Temper, was soon made flexible by her Tears.

1769.  Junius, Lett., xxxv. 160. Can you conceive that the people of this country will long submit to be governed by so flexible a house of commons!

1863.  E. V. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 99. To Marcus Aurelius, ‘the universe is guided by a directing reason, easy to be entreated, and flexible.’

  absol.  1771.  Johnson, Argt. Hastie, in Boswell, App. II. (1848), 814/1. The flexible will be reformed by gentle discipline.

  4.  Susceptible of modification or adaptation to various purposes or uses; pliant, supple.

1643.  Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., To the Reader. There are many things [in the book] to be taken in a soft and flexible sense, and not to be called unto the rigid test of Reason.

1769.  W. Robertson, Chas. V., III. X. 238. Maurice had now a very different part to act, but his flexible genius was capable of accommodating itself to every situation.

1837–9.  Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. iii. 1. § 116. 227. Hermolaus is but faintly kept in mind at the present day. In his Latin style, with the same fault as Politian, an affectation of obsolete words, he is less flexible and elegant.

1841.  F. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 10. 38. It is but a work of charity to relax the claim of the universal equal obligation of the letter of all the Scripture, and to proclaim a more flexible rule of judgement.

1882.  A. W. Ward, Dickens, iii. 54–5. In none of his books is that power, which at times filled their author himself with astonishment more strikingly and abundantly revealed than in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Never was his inventive force more flexible and more at his command; yet none of his books cost him more hard work.

1885.  Lowell, Democr., 226. Even for the mastering of our own tongue, there is no expedient so fruitful as translation out of another; how much more when that other is a language at once so precise and so flexible as the Greek!

  b.  Of the voice: (see quot. 1825).

1712.  Hughes, Spect., No. 541, 20 Nov., ¶ 7. Sorrow and Complaint demand a Voice quite different, flexible, slow, interrupted, and modulated in a mournful Tone.

1825.  Danneley, Encycl. Mus., Flexible, a voice is said to be flexible when it can swell and diminish its tones, with such grace and power, as to give every shade of expression to the melody it executes, whether ornamented or simple.

1831.  Lytton, Godolph., 30. No one read poetry so beautifully: his voice was so deep and flexible; and his countenance answered so well to every modulation of his voice.

  c.  In depreciatory sense: Supple, complaisant.

1826.  Syd. Smith, Wks. (1867), II. 118. The great majority of Judges, we have no doubt, are upright and pure; but some have been selected for flexible politics—some are passionate—some are in a hurry—some are violent churchmen—some resemble ancient females—some have the gout—some are eighty years old—some are blind, deaf, and have lost the power of smelling.

  5.  quasi-adv. = FLEXIBLY.

1833.  Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 115. The sword should be held flexible, and easy in the hand, but yet sufficiently firm to resist the cut of an adversary.