pliant

(adjective) Easily bent or flexed; pliable.

Synonyms: bendable

Usage: The connections of the several sections of the raft are slack and pliant, so that the raft may be readily bent into any sort of curve required by the shape of the river.

1: yielding readily without breaking : bending or folding easily : flexible, workable, lithe

<modeled in the pliant material and then … hardened — Nathaniel Hawthorne>
<a girl … with a slim, pliant figure — Inez Karma & Gilbert Millstein>

2: easily influenced : yielding

<had a pliant congressional majority — A. S. Link>

3: suitable, apt

<which I observing, took once a pliant hour — Shakespeare>

4: lending itself to varied uses : adaptable

<a pliant style>
<the clarinet … a very fluent and pliant instrument — Winthrop Sargeant>

Origin of PLIANT

Middle English pliaunt, from Middle French pliant, present participle of plier to bend, ply

First Known Use: 14th century (sense 1)

Synonyms:

bendy [chiefly British], flexible, limber, lissome (also lissom), lithe, lithesome, pliable, willowy, supple

Antonyms:

inflexible, rigid, stiff, stiffened

Related Words:

adaptable, ductile, elastic, fluid, kneadable, malleable, modifiable, plastic, variable, yielding; droopy, flaccid, floppy, limp; semiflexible

Near Antonyms:

inelastic, nonmalleable, unyielding; breakable, brittle, fragile

From "A Tramp Abroad" written by Mark Twain.

In poetry:

The lovely pliant strength is yours
To yield, yet win your ends.
You have the weeping sympathy
With which the willow bends;

"Immortal Eve - III" by Manmohan Ghose

And cats with printers....




( Chris Cohen walks with the Angels )

This one has a great punch line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koe_g6t4llE