| 释义 |
flexibility|flɛksɪˈbɪlɪtɪ|
[a. F. flexibilité, ad. L. flexibilitāt-em, f. flexibilis: see flexible and -ity.]
The quality of being flexible.
1. a. Capability of being bent; pliancy.
1616Bullokar, Flexibilitie, aptnes to bend. 1656Ridgley Pract. Physick 359 Smaller Tents must not be put in, because of their flexibility. 1796Brougham in Phil. Trans. LXXXVI. 234 The parts of light differ in flexibility. 1859–60J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. ii. ii. 234 That strength and flexibility of limb..by which a man excels in manly games.
†b. The quality of yielding to pressure. Obs.
1677A. Horneck Gt. Law Consid. vi. (1704) 339 When this air yields to all gross bodies, and lets them pass without opposition..In that flexibility, thou mayest see the sinfulness of thy inexorable temper.
2. a. Susceptibility of modification or alteration; capacity for ready adaptation to various purposes or conditions; freedom from stiffness or rigidity.
1783Blair Lect. Rhet. I. ix. 175 The flexibility of a Language, or its power of accommodation to different styles and manners. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 54 It has not that softness and flexibility, which are found in other languages. 1838Thirlwall Greece II. xi. 46 The flexibility necessary for a continual adaptation to altered circumstances. 1865M. Arnold Ess. Crit. ii. (1875) 57 Flexibility of intelligence. 1871W. Markby Elem. Law §59 Its [judiciary law's] only advantage—that of flexibility or capacity of being adapted to any new combination of circumstances that may arise. 1875Hamerton Intell. Life x. v. 392 Men of exceptional power and exceptional flexibility. 1961Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 19 Oct. 176/1 The principle of flexibility in fixing stipends within scales. 1962Listener 29 Mar. 540/2 It follows then, doesn't it, that a civil defence programme is not meant primarily to add to the flexibility of American strategy?
b. Of the voice or fingers: Capacity for free, rapid, and varied execution or delivery. Also pl.
1795Mason Ch. Mus. ii. 134 It required no flexibility of throat. 1807tr. Gœde's Trav. II. 218 Mrs. Siddons possesses all the flexibilities of tone. 1848Rimbault First Bk. Piano 43 When the fingers of the right hand have acquired some degree of flexibility. 1848C. Brontë J. Eyre xi. 102 A flexibility of voice and an appropriateness of gesture.
3. Readiness to yield to influence or persuasion, pliancy of mind or disposition. Const. to.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. vii. (1843) 426/1 The flexibility and instability of that gentleman's nature, not being then understood. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 162 ⁋6 Flexibility to his present humour. 1772Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) I. 151 The flexibility, as we may call it, of a child. |