online medical dictionary | definition of flexible

1. Capable of being flexed or bent; admitting of being turned, bowed, or twisted, without breaking; pliable; yielding to pressure; not stiff or brittle. "When the splitting wind Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks." (Shak)

2. Willing or ready to yield to the influence of others; not invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable; ductile; easy and compliant; wavering. "Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people." (Bacon) "Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible." (Shak)

3. Capable or being adapted or molded; plastic,; as, a flexible language. "This was a principle more flexible to their purpose." (Rogers)

Synonyms: Pliant, pliable, supple, tractable, manageable, ductile, obsequious, inconstant, wavering.

Flex"ibleness, Flex"ibly.

Origin: L. Flexibilis: cf. F. Flexible.

(01 Mar 1998)