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One of the long, pliable twigs of this plant, or of other somilar plants. The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream. Shak. Osier bed, or Osier holt, a place where willows are grown for basket making. [Eng.] -- Red osier. (a) A kind of willow with reddish twigs (Salix rubra). (b) An American shrub (Cornus stolonifera)…

The quality or state of being pliable; flexibility; as, pliability of disposition. "Pliability of movement." Sir W. Scott.

e of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking; flexible; pliable; lithe; limber; plastic; as, a pliant thread; pliant wax. Also used figuratively: Easily influenced for good or evil; tractable; as, a pliant heart. The will was then ductile and pliant to right reason. South.…

A strip of oxhide, deprived of hair, and rendered pliable, -- used for twisting into ropes, etc. [South Africa] Simmonds.

A bag for holding and carrying goods of any kind; a receptacle made of some kind of pliable material, as cloth, leather, and the like; a large pouch.

Soft, and full of cavities; of an open, loose, pliable texture; as, a spongy excrescence; spongy earth; spongy cake; spongy bones.

A long, narrow, pliable strip of leather, cloth, or the like; specifically, a strip of thick leather used in flogging. A lively cobbler that . . . had scarce passed a day without giving her [his wife] the discipline of the strap. Addison.

A climbing shrub (Berchemia volubilus) of the Southern United States, having a tough and pliable stem.

The quality or state of being supple; flexibility; pliableness; pliancy.

To have or get a proper or desired state or quality; to grow soft and pliable. I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Shak.

A kind of sledge made of pliable board, turned up at one or both ends, used for coasting down hills or prepared inclined planes; also, a sleigh or sledge, to be drawn by dogs, or by hand, over soft and deep snow. [Written also tobogan, and tarbogan.]

To free from starch; to make limp or pliable.

A wad, or the materials for wads; any pliable substance of which wads may be made.

Resembling wax in appearance or consistency; viscid; adhesive; soft; hence, yielding; pliable; impressible. "Waxy to persuasion." Bp. Hall. Waxy degeneration (Med.), amyloid degeneration. See under Amyloid. -- Waxy kidney, Waxy liver, etc. (Med.), a kidney or liver affected by waxy degeneration.