What's the difference between firm and flexible?

Firm


Definition:

  • (superl.) Fixed; hence, closely compressed; compact; substantial; hard; solid; -- applied to the matter of bodies; as, firm flesh; firm muscles, firm wood.
  • (superl.) Not easily excited or disturbed; unchanging in purpose; fixed; steady; constant; stable; unshaken; not easily changed in feelings or will; strong; as, a firm believer; a firm friend; a firm adherent.
  • (superl.) Solid; -- opposed to fluid; as, firm land.
  • (superl.) Indicating firmness; as, a firm tread; a firm countenance.
  • (a.) The name, title, or style, under which a company transacts business; a partnership of two or more persons; a commercial house; as, the firm of Hope & Co.
  • (a.) To fix; to settle; to confirm; to establish.
  • (a.) To fix or direct with firmness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Villagers, including one man who has been left disabled and the relatives of six men who were killed, are suing ABG in the UK high court, represented by British law firm Leigh Day, alleging that Tanzanian police officers shot unarmed locals.
  • (2) However, direct measurements of mediator release should be carried out to reach a firm conclusion.
  • (3) Video games specialist Game was teetering on the brink of collapse on Friday after a rescue deal put forward by private equity firm OpCapita appeared to have been given the cold shoulder by lenders who are owed more than £100m.
  • (4) One is that the issue of whether the World Cup should go ahead in Russia and Qatar still firmly remains on the table.
  • (5) Neil Blessitt Bristol • We need to establish what the legal position is with regard to the establishment by the government of a private company co-owned by the Department of Health and the French firm Sopra Steria.
  • (6) Particular attention has been paid to diabetes mellitus and chronic pancreatitis, but a firm conclusion cannot be drawn.
  • (7) Pupils who disrupt the learning of their classmates are dealt with firmly and, in many cases, a short suspension is an effective way of nipping bad behaviour in the bud."
  • (8) Cloning of the A-T allele(s) will assist in the early or prenatal diagnosis of A-T and provide a firm basis for determining who, in the general population, carries this gene and is therefore at a high risk of cancer.
  • (9) We are firmly opposed to that," an unidentified spokesman from the ministry of industry and information technology told the state news agency, Xinhua.
  • (10) Officers arrested her last month during the protest against oil drilling by the energy firm Cuadrilla at Balcombe in West Sussex – a demonstration Lucas has attended several times.
  • (11) "At the moment there are about 1,600 criminal justice firms, and they all have a contract with the lord chancellor.
  • (12) VAT increases don't just hit the poor more than the rich, they also hit small firms, threaten retail jobs and, by boosting inflation, could also lead to higher interest rates."
  • (13) Her story is an incredible tale of triumph over tragedy: a tormented childhood during China's Cultural Revolution, detention and forced exile after exposing female infanticide – then glittering success as the head of a major US technology firm.
  • (14) We firmly believe that a systematic approach to the 12-lead ECG can provide information that can diagnose the difference between ventricular and supraventricular tachycardia, and in many instances diagnose the mechanism and site of origin of the supraventricular tachycardia.
  • (15) Terry Waite Chair, Benedict Birnberg Deputy chair, Antonio Ferrara CEO The Prisons Video Trust • If I want to build a bridge, I call in a firm of civil engineers who specialise in bridge-building.
  • (16) The court hearing – in a case of the kind likely to be heard in secret if the government's justice and security bill is passed – was requested by the law firm Leigh Day and the legal charity Reprieve, acting for Serdar Mohammed, tortured by the Afghan security services after being transferred to their custody by UK forces.
  • (17) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
  • (18) China's relations with the NTC were strained last week when it emerged Chinese arms firms had talked to Muammar Gaddafi's representatives about weapons sales .
  • (19) It may not point to independence – nor, given that large swaths of Wales remain firmly dominated by Labour, mean any huge advance for Plaid Cymru.
  • (20) In order to identify these anchorage structures, the non-DNA materials that remain firmly bound to chromosomal DNA under conditions that disintegrate the high salt-stable architecture of nuclei were investigated.

Flexible


Definition:

  • (a.) Capable of being flexed or bent; admitting of being turned, bowed, or twisted, without breaking; pliable; yielding to pressure; not stiff or brittle.
  • (a.) Willing or ready to yield to the influence of others; not invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable; ductile; easy and compliant; wavering.
  • (a.) Capable or being adapted or molded; plastic,; as, a flexible language.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Many speak about how yoga and surfing complement each other, both involving deep concentration, flexibility and balance.
  • (2) Results on resting blood pressure, serum lipids, vital capacity, flexibility, upper body strength, and vertical jump tests were comparable to values found for the sedentary population.
  • (3) This suggests that S1 is a flexible protein with at least two domains that can rotate independently.
  • (4) A more current view of science, the Probabilistic paradigm, encourages more complex models, which can be articulated as the more flexible maxims used with insight by the wise clinician.
  • (5) With improved monitoring, the use of smaller, more flexible endoscopes, and more experience, routine general anesthesia in children less than 3 years of age, as recommended in the past, may not be mandatory.
  • (6) Flexibility and integration of approaches may be advantageous and hypnosis, including regression and reframing, may be especially powerful in the treatment of phobics.
  • (7) The drug orientation and the DNA orientation (reflecting flexibility) are observed to vary differently and nonmonotonically with binding ratio, suggesting specific binding and varying site geometries.
  • (8) Extraction tools included flexible, telescoping sheaths advanced over the lead to dilate scar tissue and apply countertraction, deflection catheters, and wire basket snares.
  • (9) Flexibility is essential so that the appropriate technique or agent can be selected for a particular pediatric ICU patient.
  • (10) The flexible adaptation of psychosomatic aspects to the current needs of dermatologists was found most important.
  • (11) Lenses with inserted flexible open loops (e.g., Dubroff) have only been implanted in small series, but the results have been quite good.
  • (12) The presence of aspartic acid and asparagine residues in other conformations, such as those in partially denatured, conformationally flexible regions, may lead to more rapid succinimide formation and contribute to the degradation of the molecule.
  • (13) Eight alpha-helices behave as relatively rigid bodies and corner regions are more flexible, showing larger fluctuations.
  • (14) We interpret the high resistance of this protein to urea as reflecting a reduced flexibility of its structure at normal temperatures which should be correlated to the thermophilic origin of this protein.
  • (15) We argue that the power and flexibility of computer simulation as a technique for dealing with uncertainty and variability is especially appropriate in the case of HIV and AIDS.
  • (16) A one-way analysis of variance showed that there were no significant differences in flexibility of the five fixation constructs (P greater than .05).
  • (17) All patients with distal polyps detected during flexible sigmoidoscopy underwent colonoscopy.
  • (18) A small helix is identified at the carboxy terminus of A2 which emerges through the central pore of the B subunits and probably comes into contact with the membrane upon binding, whereas the A1 subunit is flexible with respect to the B pentamer.
  • (19) These observations strongly suggest that (i) GCN4 specifically recognizes the central base pair, (ii) the optimal half-site for GCN4 binding is ATGAC, not ATGAG, and (iii) GCN4 is a surprisingly flexible protein that can accommodate the insertion of a single base pair in the center of its compact binding site.
  • (20) New laws to give parents more flexible leave and strong commitments to family-friendly working hours will be among the headline measures.