different between pliant vs bending

English

Etymology

From Middle English pliaunt, from Old French ploiant, present participle of ploiier (“to fold”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pla??nt/
• Rhymes: -a??nt

Adjective

pliant (comparative more pliant, superlative most pliant)

1. Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking
   • 1917, The National Geographic Magazine April 1917, The Warblers of North America

     Whether in its northern or southern home, the black-throated blue warbler builds its nest of bark, roots, and other pliant material, loose and rather bulky, in a variety of saplings, bushes, and weeds, but always a few inches or a few feet from the ground.

   Synonyms: flexible, pliable, lithe, limber, plastic

2. (figuratively) Easily influenced; tractable.
   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,^[1]

     I must haue wanton Poets, pleasant wits,

     Musitians, that with touching of a string

     May draw the pliant king which way I please:

   • 1839, William Gilmore Simms, “The Brooklet” in Southern Passages and Pictures, New York: George Adlard, p. 2,^[2]

     Yet there was pleasant sadness that became

     Meetly the gentle heart and pliant sense,

     In that same idlesse—gazing on that brook

   • 1988, A. J. Langguth, Patriots,

     [The king] had a pliant prime minister and a general who was telling him what he wanted to hear.

Derived terms

• pliantness

Related terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• -platin, Taplin, plaint, platin

French

Verb

pliant

1. present participle of plier

Adjective

pliant (feminine singular pliante, masculine plural pliants, feminine plural pliantes)

1. pliant

   Sa mère a acheté un vélo pliant. - His mother bought a folding bicycle.

Derived terms

• chaise pliante
• lit pliant

Further reading

• “pliant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• pilant, plaint

Romanian

Etymology

From French pliant.

Adjective

pliant m or n (feminine singular pliant?, masculine plural plian?i, feminine and neuter plural pliante)

1. folding

Declension

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?nd??/

Verb

bending

1. present participle of bend

Noun

bending (plural bendings)

1. A motion or action that bends.

   a bending of the knees

2. An instance of something being adapted or distorted.

   bendings of the rules

Translations

Faroese

Etymology

benda +? -ing

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?nt??k/

  Rhymes: -?nt??k

Noun

bending f (genitive singular bendingar, plural bendingar)

1. inflection

Declension

Derived terms

• ábending
• stigbending

Icelandic

Etymology

From benda +? -ing

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?nti?k/

Noun

bending f (genitive singular bendingar, nominative plural bendingar)

1. pointing, showing, indicating
2. hint, clue

Declension

Derived terms

• ábending (“comment, tip, advice”)
• frábending (“contraindication”)
• sakbending (“criminal line-up”)
• vísbending (“clue, indication”)