| 释义 |
flexile, a. Now somewhat rare.|ˈflɛksɪl|
Also 7 flexil.
[ad. L. flexil-em, f. flex- ppl. stem of flectĕre to bend: see -ile.]
1. Easily bending or bent, pliant, supple, flexible. Of the features: Mobile.
1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 20 The serpent..winds about it with his flexile and folding body. a1734North Lives II. 202 From the box proceeds a flexile pipe with the tool at the end. 1774Westm. Mag. II. 374 Hers is the humble eye, the flexile knee. 1814Wordsw. Excursion viii. 443 Whose flexile boughs..conceal'd the stems and roots. 1834Lytton Pompeii 21 A Sicilian who with vehement gestures and flexile features was narrating..a strange tale.
2. transf. and fig.
a. Easily directed or swayed; yielding, tractable.
b. Capable of varied adaptation, versatile.
1651Biggs New Disp. ⁋291. 214 Their too flexile natures. 1738–46Thomson Summer 980 At sea, whose every flexile wave Obeys the blast. 1744Armstrong Preserv. Health ii. 383 Whose flexile genius sparkles in the gem, Grows firm in oak, and fugitive in wine. 1836Lytton Athens I. 111 The Ionians..were susceptible, flexile [etc.]. 1842Tennyson Amphion viii. 59 Oh, nature first was fresh to men..So youthful and so flexile then, You moved her at your pleasure.
Hence fleˈxility [+ -ity], the quality or condition of being flexile.
1659Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 565/2 There are others which depend upon these; as Flexility, Tactility, Ductility, and others. 1815W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XL. 409 The flexility of the Samaritans. |