pliant, a.
(ˈplaɪənt)
Forms: 4 pleaunt, plyande, 5–6 pli-, ply-, -aunt(e, -awnt, 5–8 plyant, 6– pliant.
[a. F. pliant (13th c.), pr. pple. of plier to bend, ply.]
Bending, yielding.
1. Bending; capable of being bent or folded with ease; supple, lithe, flexible; † ductile, plastic.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. C. 439 Hit watz playn in þat place for plyande greuez, For to schylde fro the schene. 1382 Wyclif Gen. iii. 24 He sette cherubyn..and a flawmynge swerde & pleaunt to the waye of the tree of liif to be kept. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. c. (Tollem. MS.), [Glass] is so plyaunt, þat it fongeþ ful sone diuerse and contrary schappes, by blaste of þe glasier. Ibid. xvii. cxliii. (Bodl. MS.), Some weþies..beþ..so pliaunte þat þei brekeþ nought. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 109 The elephante hath a long nose lyke a troumpe, pliant hither and thither. 1601 Donne Poems (1650) 301 The free inhabitants of the plyant ayre. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. i. 43 These Hats are as stiff as boards, and sit not plyant to their heads. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 397 [Tortoise shells] are easily cast into what form the workman thinks proper, by making them soft and pliant in warm water, and then screwing them in a mold, like a medal. 1880 L. Morris Ode of Life 25 The fisher, with his pliant wand. |
2. fig. a. Easily bent or inclined to any particular course; readily influenced for good or evil; yielding, compliant; accommodating, complaisant.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 4386 Haue herte as hard as dyamaunt, Stedefast, and nought pliaunt. c 1530 H. Rhodes Bk. Nurture 129 in Babees Bk. (1868) 85 A plyaunt seruaunt gets fauour to his great aduauntage. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. ii. (1627) 10 This first age is that wherein they are most pliant. 1701 Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. iv. i. 1792 'Twill..make his Youth more plyant to my Will. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) II. ix. 75 Men..pliant to good advice. 1860 Motley Netherl. I. vii. 405 A committee thus instructed was likely to be sufficiently pliant. 1877 Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. i. ii. 25 The king would find some other prelate who would be more pliant in his hands. |
b. = flexible 4.
| 1635–56 Cowley Davideis i. 776 Thrice in glad Hymns..The pliant voice on her seven steps they raise. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. (1848) 36 He may..attain to so pliant a style, that scarce any thought will puzzle him to fit words to it. 1882 Cox Expositor IV. 197 It should be pliant to or leave room for the discoveries of widening science. |
c. That lends itself to some purpose; apt, adaptable, suitable. rare.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 151 Which I obseruing, Tooke once a pliant houre, and found good meanes To draw from her a prayer. 1861 J. Pycroft Ways & Words 60 Noble companions of many a pliant hour. |
3. Comb., as pliant-bodied, pliant-necked, etc.
| 1798 Landor Gebir vii. 139 Swans pliant-necked. 1870 Bryant Iliad xii. I. 383 Like pliant-bodied wasps or bees. |