flaccid, a.
(ˈflæksɪd)
Also 7 flaccide, (8 flacid).
[a. F. flaccide (Cotgr.), ad. L. flaccidus, f. flaccus flabby.]
1. Wanting in stiffness, hanging or lying loose or in wrinkles; limber, limp; flabby. Chiefly of flesh and similar structures: rarely of a person.
| 1620 Venner Via Recta v. 87 The one it maketh flaccide, and the other subiect to putrefaction. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. iv. 46 The sides of the Bladder grew flaccid. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 32 Yet are the Muscles not Flaccid, but Tense and Firm. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 117 ¶8 The flaccid sides of a football. 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs Wks. IX. 385 His double chin over his flaccid whitey-brown shirt collar. 1848 ― Van. Fair lxi, The flaccid children within. 1879 Froude Cæsar xv. 234 His hair moist, his eyes heavy, his cheeks flaccid. |
b. Of vegetable organs and tissues: Bending without elasticity, also, relaxed from want of moisture; drooping.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §493 The part, against which the Sun beateth, waxeth more faint and flaccide in the Stalk, and thereby less able to support the Flower. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 233 Stem flaccid, rough with strong hairs. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. ix. 226 The leaf being flaccid and apparently dead. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 675 The current of water also ceases as soon as the tissues which have become somewhat flaccid are again turgescent. |
2. Of immaterial things: Wanting vigour and nervous energy, limp, feeble.
| 1647 H. More Song of Soul ii. i. ii. xli, What's dull or flaccid, nought illustrative. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. i. 20 A scheme that had left us flaccid and drain'd. 1875 Farrar Silence & V. viii. 140 It is because his resolutions have been feeble, and his purposes flaccid. |
Hence ˈflaccidly adv., in a flaccid manner; ˈflaccidness, the state of being flaccid, flaccidity.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Flaccidness. 1847 Craig, Flaccidly. 1876 tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. 238 The flaccidness of the tissues. 1883 R. Broughton Belinda I. i. xii. 218 Belinda has thrown herself flaccidly into a chair. |