Dictionary

bendable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈbɛndəbəl/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *bindaną Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *bandijaną Proto-West Germanic *bandijan Old English bendan Middle English benden English bend Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English bendable From bend + -able.

Meanings

1. Able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking.
   • The father scorned stooping. Neither his body nor his mind was bendable. 1944, Emily Carr, “Snow”, in The House of All Sorts:
   • When necessity dictates, our laws are as bendable as licorice to our presidents, and if their private conversations had been taped an awful lot of history would be different now. 1974, Arthur Miller, “The Limited Hang-Out: The Dialogues of Richard Nixon as a Drama of the Antihero”, in Steven R. Centola, editor, Echoes Down the Corridor, Viking, published 2000, page 145:
   • It was quite a shock to find when one stroked her that the China Cat, though alive, was still china, hard, cold, and smooth to the touch, and yet perfectly brisk and absolutely bendable as any flesh and blood cat. 1912, E. Nesbit, chapter 6, in The Magic World:
   • The tough, bendable fabric combines hydrogels — such as those found in contact lenses or jello – with glass fibers. This particular combination maximizes its resilience, making the material 100 times tougher than hydrogels and 25 times tougher than glass fiber fabric, based on the amount of energy needed to destroy it. 2017 July 16, Jenny Marc, Katy Scott, “Revolutionary gel is five times stronger than steel”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Jul 2025:

Forms

Antonyms

rigid

Deriveds

unbendable

Relateds

bendability

Synonyms

flexible · pliant · pliable

Translations (13)

gv so-lhoobey (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · is beygjanlegur (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · hu hajlítható (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · fi taipuisa (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · ru сгибаемый (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · nl buigbaar (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · es flexible (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · vi co the uon cong (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · gv so-chammey (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · es articulable (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · fi taipuva (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · pt dobrável (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking) · sv böjbar (able to be bent or flexed or twisted without breaking)