pliant

/ˈplaɪənt/

Other forms: pliantly

The adjective pliant describes something that is capable of being bent. "The teenager showed off her pliant spine every time she draped herself over a piece of furniture. Why hanging upside down off the sofa didn't give her a headache, her mother would never know."

Pliant has both a literal and a figurative meaning. Pliant can describe something that is bendable — like a spine, a tree branch, a bendy straw — or it can describe something that is flexible, but less tangible. In this latter sense, pliant describes something that adjusts to conditions or is easily influenced: "In order to survive the recession, the company had to be pliant and adjust to the new economic conditions."

Definitions of pliant

1. adjective

   capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out
   “pliant molten glass”

   synonyms: ductile, malleable, pliable, tensile, tractile

   formed

   having or given a form or shape
2. adjective

   capable of being bent or flexed or twisted without breaking
   “a pliant young tree”

   synonyms: bendable, pliable, waxy

   flexible, flexile

   able to flex; able to bend easily
3. adjective

   able to adjust readily to different conditions
   synonyms: elastic, flexible, pliable

   adaptable

   capable of adapting (of becoming or being made suitable) to a particular situation or use
4. adjective

   capable of being influenced or formed
   “a pliant nature”

   synonyms: plastic

   impressible, impressionable, waxy

   easily impressed or influenced