Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Easily drawn into wire or hammered thin.
  • adjective Easily molded or shaped. synonym: malleable.
  • adjective Capable of being readily persuaded or influenced; tractable.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Susceptible of being led or drawn; tractable; complying; yielding to persuasion or instruction: as, the ductile mind of youth; a ductile people.
  • Flexible; pliable.
  • Capable of being drawn out into wire or threads: as, gold is the most ductile of the metals.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Easily led; tractable; complying; yielding to motives, persuasion, or instruction.
  • adjective Capable of being elongated or drawn out, as into wire or threads.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Capable of being pulled or stretched into thin wire by mechanical force without breaking.
  • adjective Molded easily into a new form.
  • adjective rare Led easily; prone to follow.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective easily influenced
  • adjective capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English ductil, from Old French, from Latin ductilis, from ductus, past participle of dūcere, to lead; see deuk- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ductilis ("easily led").

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Examples

  • "That can actually trigger a phenomenon we know as ductile failure," Dr Fusseis said.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2009

  • 426 MO ESHANI: Well, Anderson, you know, structural engineers, we usually design buildings so that if they are going to fail, they would fail in a mode that we call a ductile mode of failure and basically, in that mode, the members would sag and deflect a lot so that they would give plenty of warning before the failure.

    CNN Transcript Aug 2, 2007 2007

  • In addition, aluminum is ductile, that is, it can be drawn into wires or pressed into sheets or foil.

    Aluminum 2008

  • Grasping her prey with her legs and jaws, in another moment the wriggling body is passive in her grasp, subdued by the potent anæsthetic of her sting -- a hypodermic injection which instantly produces the semblance of death in its insect victim, reducing all the vital functions to the point of dissolution, and then holds them suspended -- literally prolongs life, it would sometimes seem, even beyond its normal duration -- by a process which I might call ductile equation.

    My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873

  • roomservice taco, you said gold is ductile aka. malleable ... anon 1:31 can only read in phonetics so he/she saw "Duct Tile" and viola, one funny comment

    This Just In: Collector's Item Alert!!! BikeSnobNYC 2008

  • It is also ductile, meaning it can be drawn into wire.

    Silver 2008

  • First, it is ductile, meaning it is extremely hard to break and naturally returns to its original shape.

    The War on Earth 2007

  • He writes "ductile" to say that when he flings his thread everywhere in search for security, he brings in different beliefs and religions.

    Progressive U - The new media voice for students 2009

  • 'ductile' in speaking of dead clay, and Duke, Doge, or leader, in speaking of living clay.

    The Crown of Wild Olive also Munera Pulveris; Pre-Raphaelitism; Aratra Pentelici; The Ethics of the Dust; Fiction, Fair and Foul; The Elements of Drawing John Ruskin 1859

  • In a BMG composite the BMG is the matrix and a ductile crystalline-phase is the reinforcement material.

    Metal Uniform | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

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