pliant

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French ploiant, present participle of ploiier (“to fold”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplaɪənt/
• Rhymes: -aɪənt

Adjective

pliant (comparative more pliant, superlative most pliant)

1. Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking
   • 1917, The National Geographic Magazine April 1917, The Warblers of North America

     Whether in its northern or southern home, the black-throated blue warbler builds its nest of bark, roots, and other pliant material, loose and rather bulky, in a variety of saplings, bushes, and weeds, but always a few inches or a few feet from the ground.

   Synonyms: flexible, pliable, lithe, limber, plastic

   a pliant thread  pliant wax

2. (figuratively) Easily influenced; tractable.
   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,^[1]

     I must haue wanton Poets, pleasant wits,

     Musitians, that with touching of a string

     May draw the pliant king which way I please:

   • 1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 11, recto:

     [A]nd it is without all controuerſie, that learning doth make the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant to gouernment; whereas Ignorance makes them churlish[,] thwart, and mutinous; [...]

   • 1839, William Gilmore Simms, “The Brooklet” in Southern Passages and Pictures, New York: George Adlard, p. 2,^[2]

     Yet there was pleasant sadness that became

     Meetly the gentle heart and pliant sense,

     In that same idlesse—gazing on that brook

   • 1988, A. J. Langguth, Patriots,

     [The king] had a pliant prime minister and a general who was telling him what he wanted to hear.

Derived terms

• pliantness

Translations

Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking

• Latin: flexilis
• Maori: tāngehe
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: пода́тливый (ru) (podátlivyj), мя́гкий (ru) (mjáxkij)
• Scottish Gaelic: lùbach

Easily influenced for good or evil

• Latin: flexilis
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: уступчивый (ru) (ustupčivyj), сгово́рчивый (ru) (sgovórčivyj)

Anagrams

• Taplin, plaint, platin

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French

Verb

pliant

1. present participle of plier

Adjective

pliant (feminine pliante, masculine plural pliants, feminine plural pliantes)

1. pliant

   Sa mère a acheté un vélo pliant. - His mother bought a folding bicycle.

Further reading

• “pliant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• pilant, plaint