expansible

American  

[ik-span-suh-buhl] / ɪkˈspæn sə bəl /

adjective

1. capable of being expanded.

   Most metals are expansible.

---

expansible British  

/ ɪkˈspænsəbəl /

adjective

1. able to expand or be expanded

---

Other Word Forms

• expansibility noun
• nonexpansibility noun
• nonexpansible adjective
• semiexpansible adjective
• unexpansible adjective

Etymology

Origin of expansible

1685–95; < Latin expāns ( us ) ( see expanse) + -ible

Example Sentences

However absurd the cereal wars may appear, Roth says he is simply trying to act before the really big guys muscle in on his highly expansible idea.

From Time Magazine Archive

And while human desires were expansible, he doubted whether the demand for goods could possibly increase with sufficient rapidity to absorb the new productive capacities of the nation.

From American World Policies by Weyl, Walter E.

This is why he insisted that we understand the policy implications of the differences between tangible property and ideas, which "like fire" are "expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point."

From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by Boyle, James

The world market is indefinitely expansible, and is always expanding; and commercial experience shows that the rapid expansion of the overseas trade of one country does not preclude the expansion of trade of other countries.

From Morals of Economic Internationalism by Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson)

One method is to form the tube of two layers of glass, one being considerably more expansible than the other.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 1 "Gichtel, Johann" to "Glory" by Various