adjective
-
easily bent; supple
a pliant young tree
-
easily modified; adaptable; flexible
a pliant system
-
yielding readily to influence; compliant
Related Words
See flexible.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pliant
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Old French, present participle of the verb plier ply 2; see -ant
Explanation
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."
Vocabulary lists containing pliant
Mythology
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"The Odyssey," Vocabulary from Part 2 of the epic poem
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Bless Me, Ultima
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The world premiere by Fugitive Kind is directed by Amanda McRaven, a 2014 Ovation Award-winner for Fugitive’s “The Pliant Girls.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2018
The playwrighting award went to Meghan Brown won for her drama "The Pliant Girls" at the Fugitive Kind Theatre.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 3, 2014
Pliant and warm in the play’s opening moments, before the doctor has come, Ms. Oh reveals a fragility in the character’s psyche, expressed in her fluttering terror when those headlights strafe the room.
From New York Times • Jul. 11, 2014
Pliant, springy, relaxed, and barely glancing at the score, he gilded the gingerbread to exactly the right, permissible degree and charmed us all.
From The Guardian • Sep. 4, 2010
Pliant to the last touch, I say aloud,— "No, I must go in this train"; and so I go, trunkless and crestfallen, to meet Halicarnassus.
From Gala-days by Hamilton, Gail
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
