inflexibility
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in·flex·i·ble
(ĭn-flĕk′sə-bəl)adj.
1. Not easily bent; stiff or rigid. See stiff.
2. Incapable of being changed; unalterable: an inflexible rule.
3. Refusing to change one's attitude, purpose, or principles; immovable: an inflexible disciplinarian.
in·flex′i·bil′i·ty, in·flex′i·ble·ness n.
in·flex′i·bly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Flexibility/Inflexibility
See Also: HABIT
- Adaptable as a Norwegian wharf rat —James Mills
- Adjustable as prices of goods sold in a flea market —Anon
- Adjust to as your eyes adjust to darkness or sudden light —Anon
- Be pliable like a reed, not rigid like a cedar —Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar
- Elastic as a criminal’s conscience —Anon
- Elastic as a steel spring —Anon
- Flexible as a diplomat’s conscience —Anon
- Flexible as figures in the hands of the statistician —Israel Zangwill
- Flexible as silk —Ouida
- Has as much give as a tree trunk —Jimmy Breslin
- Implacable an adversary as a wife suing for alimony —William Wycherly
- (Softly, unhurriedly but) implacably, like a great river flowing on and on —Harvey Swados
- Inflexible as a marble pillar —Anon
- Inflexible as steel —Ouida
- Inflexible as the rings of hell —John Cheever
- Intractable as a driven ghost —Sylvia Plath
- Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind —W. Somerset Maugham
- (The adolescent personality is as) malleable as infant flesh —Barbara Lazear Ascher, New York Times/Hers, October 23, 1986
- The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind —William Blake
- Mind set like concrete —George Garrett
- Pliable as wax —James Shirley
- Pliant as cloth —Eugene Sue
- Pliant as flesh —Linda Pastan
- Rigidity yielding a little, like justice swayed by mercy, is the whole beauty of the earth —G. K. Chesterton
- Set as a piece of sculpture —Charles Dickens
- They made their hearts as an adamant stone —The Holy Bible/Apocrypha
A variation from “Hearts firm as stone” and “Cold as stone” from the Book of Job.
- Uncompromising as a policeman’s club —Anon
- Uncompromising as justice —William Lloyd Garrison
- (There he was, as) unshakable as granite —Frank Swinnerton
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
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| Noun | 1. | inflexibility - a lack of physical flexibility flexibility, flexibleness - the property of being flexible; easily bent or shaped |
| 2. | inflexibility - the quality of being rigid and rigorously severe unadaptability - the inability to change or be changed to fit changed circumstances flexibility, flexibleness - the quality of being adaptable or variable; "he enjoyed the flexibility of his working arrangement" |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
inflexibility
noun obstinacy, persistence, intransigence, obduracy, fixity, steeliness She was irritated by the inflexibility of her colleagues.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
inflexibility
nounThe quality or state of being stubbornly inflexible:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
عَدم مُرونَه، عَدم الإنثِناء، صَلابَه
neoblomnost
stivhedubøjelighedurokkelighed
hajlíthatatlanság
ósveigjanleiki
neochvejnosťneohybnosť
bükülmezlik
inflexibility
[ɪnˌfleksɪˈbɪlɪtɪ] N [of substance, object] → rigidez f (fig) [of person, opinions, rules] → inflexibilidad fCollins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
inflexible
(inˈfleksəbl) adjective1. (of a person) never yielding or giving way.
2. not able to bend.
inˈflexibly adverbinˌflexiˈbility noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.