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g 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.

Yielding; bending; pliant; submissive. "The compliant boughs." Milton.

In a compliant manner.

Not compliant; unyielding to request, solicitation, or command; stubborn. -- In`com*pli"ant*ly, adv.

Asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseeching; supplicating. The rich grow suppliant, and the poor grow proud. Dryden.

Applicable; also, compliant. [Obs.] Howell.

Yielding; pliable or compliant; ready to obey; obedient; tractable; docile; meek; humble. [Obs.] So wild a beast, so tame ytaught to be, And buxom to his bands, is joy to see. Spenser. I submit myself unto this holy church of Christ, to be ever buxom and obedient to the ordinance of it. Foxe.

Made of cheveril; pliant. [Obs.] A cheveril conscience and a searching wit. Drayton.

Turkish pipe, usually with a mouthpiece of amber, a stem, four or five feet long and not pliant, of some valuable wood, and a bowl of baked clay.

Desirous to please; courteous; obliging; compliant; as, a complaisant gentleman. There are to whom my satire seems too bold: Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough. Pope.

Capable of bending or yielding; apt to yield; compliant. Another compliable mind. Milton. The Jews . . . had made their religion compliable, and accemodated to their passions. Jortin.

Disposed to compliance or obedience; ready to follow directions; submissive; compliant.

With consent; in a compliant manner. Jer. Taylor.

Easily persuaded to good or bad; yielding; ductile to a fault; pliant; flexible. Since Adam, and his facile consort Eve, Lost Paradise, deceived by me. Milton. This is treating Burns like a child, a person of so facile a disposition as not to be trusted without a keeper on the king's highway. Prof. Wilson.…

come to the ground. "Down fell the beauteous youth." Dryden. (c) To bend or bow, as a suppliant. (d) (Naut.) To sail or drift toward the mouth of a river or other outlet. -- To fall flat, to produce no response or result; to fail of the intended effect; as, his speech fell flat. -- To fall foul of. (a) (Naut.) To ha…

of others; not invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable; ductile; easy and compliant; wavering. Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people. Bacon. Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible. Shak.

Flexible; pliant; pliable; easily bent; plastic; tractable. Wordsworth.

or serve another; favor bestowed or privilege conferred. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee. Milton.

A pliant strip of wood or metal bent in a circular form, and united at the ends, for holding together the staves of casks, tubs, etc.

To help on by indulgence or compliant treatment; to soothe; to gratify; to please. You humor me when I am sick. Pope.