What's the difference between pliable and pliant?

Pliable


Definition:

  • (v.) Capable of being plied, turned, or bent; easy to be bent; flexible; pliant; supple; limber; yielding; as, willow is a pliable plant.
  • (v.) Flexible in disposition; readily yielding to influence, arguments, persuasion, or discipline; easy to be persuaded; -- sometimes in a bad sense; as, a pliable youth.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For removal of catheter fragments from vessels of small diameter, such as the subclavian vein, or vessels in which the catheter has to take an acute bend to enter, such as the right or left pulmonary artery, a smaller, more pliable Bean-Smith-Mahorner biliary stone helical basket was adapted by extending the length of wire to 100 cm.
  • (2) In this theory the isoprenoid chain of the retinal is considered a structurally pliable molecular entity that can generate charge redistributions and can be subsequently achieve intermediate conformations or various isomeric states to minimize the energy of the new protein structure generated by light.
  • (3) The plug is made of a soft, pliable plastic material with open cells, containing a carbon filter which allows flatus to pass odour-free.
  • (4) A patient's epiglottis became trapped between the pliable grates in the mask portion of the laryngeal mask and partially obstructed his airway.
  • (5) In regard to valvular anatomy, 67 had calcified valves, 58 had pliable valves and only mild subvalvular disease, and 75 had flexible valves but extensive subvalvular disease.
  • (6) Add as much of the sparkling water as you need to make a smooth, pliable mixture.
  • (7) As he checks the woman’s heart with a stethoscope, he explains exactly what is about to happen to her – the nurses will hook her up to an EKG machine, among other procedures – and gets the woman to lie down, still muttering at the original nurse but pliable.
  • (8) The splitting of several calcareous nodules on a valve made it more pliable.
  • (9) Explanted valves showed no tissue thickening or shrinkage, problems seen with earlier valves made with untreated autogenous tissue, and the leaflets remained pliable, free of the degenerative changes usually seen in the sheep model.
  • (10) A pliable, easy to place, double pigtail, internal ureteral stent made of elastomeric polyurethane is described.
  • (11) The operation resulted into a normally looking penis through the creation of a wide neourethra starting with a meatus at the apex of the glans and covered by a pliable elastic hair-less skin.
  • (12) In contrast to the pectoralis major myocutaneous flap, the pectoralis major muscle flap is light and pliable.
  • (13) Cabinet members speedily agreed to hefty cuts in 2010 and proved so pliable that the "star chamber", which hears appeals from ministers against the Treasury, never met once.
  • (14) It remains pliable until light is applied, allowing adjustments in shape for a well-fitted implant without time constraints.
  • (15) The Wallstent (Medinvent SA, Lausanne, Switzerland), a pliable, tubular stainless steel mesh, is the metallic stent of choice for treatment of malignant strictures and can be implanted in a single session resulting in a shortened hospital stay for patients undergoing palliation of irresectable biliary tumours.
  • (16) Optimal results may be expected in patients in normal sinus rhythm, with pliable mitral leaflets, and with no severe subvalvular disease identified by echocardiography, who undergo dilation with large effective balloon dilating areas.
  • (17) Clonidine has been incorporated into a small, pliable adhesive cutaneous delivery device designed to provide therapeutically effective doses of drug at a constant rate for at least 7 days.
  • (18) The hypopharyngeal mucosa is a thin, pliable lining, which often needs replacement after tumor excision, stenosis and fistulae.
  • (19) The data suggest that LICS act as pliable fluid reservoirs that empty and collapse on stimulation of Cl secretion.
  • (20) The many difficulties associated with bladder stimulation include simultaneous sphincter contraction, pain, electrode and insulation difficulties, and fibroplasia due to movement of electrodes placed in pliable tissues.

Pliant


Definition:

  • (v.) Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking; flexible; pliable; lithe; limber; plastic; as, a pliant thread; pliant wax. Also used figuratively: Easily influenced for good or evil; tractable; as, a pliant heart.
  • (v.) Favorable to pliancy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But it helped that he faced only one opponent, that a pliant local media portrayed support for Sisi as a patriotic duty, and that the election came amid a continuing crackdown on all forms of opposition.
  • (2) For these sites thin and pliant fasciocutaneous flaps are ideal tissue transfers, and we favour the radial forearm flap which is raised from the distal volar forearm.
  • (3) In several instances in which preadenoidectomy mechanical obstruction of the Eustachian tube was not demonstrated, the tube appeared to have been made more pliant by the operation.
  • (4) "For the most part the rewards for acquiescing to GOC demands are risible: pomp-full dinners and meetings and, for the most pliant, a photo op with one of the Castro brothers.
  • (5) The chancellor, George Osborne, and health secretary Jeremy Hunt would be very happy to devolve these political hot potatoes to pliant and cash-strapped local bodies.
  • (6) Putin also said outside forces would use intelligence services, the media and non-governmental organisations to destabilise Russia and make it "pliant in deciding issues in favour of the interests of other governments".
  • (7) "For 40 years the tobacco companies were able to persuade pliant politicians within their grip to tell the public what they wanted them to tell them, and for 40 years the tragedy continued," Gore told ABC TV's 7.30 program from Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
  • (8) President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida, but cuts an increasingly forlorn figure because he is seen as too pliant to the US in a country where anti-American sentiment is high.
  • (9) Like maths and music, languages sink in faster and deeper before concerns about sex and jobs besiege the pliant brain.
  • (10) If one interrupts that sort of pliant texture operatively-unless their is an urgent indication-unprofitable results must be expected, which correspond to orthopedic experiences.
  • (11) While the fashion press and the beauty industry remain invested in the idea of young women as pliant, affable and terminally anxious about getting boys to like them, real women and girls are fighting back against a culture that persists in trying to present our desires and rebrand our politics as fluffy and marketable.
  • (12) Those courts once had a reputation for independence, but that changed under Mubarak, who made changes to personnel and to the rules on the appointment of judges which over time left mainly pliant men on the bench, ready either to take “guidance” on cases or to accommodate what they imagined would be the government’s desires.
  • (13) Critics have accused Erdogan of seeking to diminish the importance of the Turkish parliament and also seeking to make the independent judiciary far more pliant.
  • (14) Some fear his next move will be to go after Jega, the electoral chief, and replace him with someone more pliant.
  • (15) The distal flap is thin and pliant due to the small amount of subcutaneous tissue and the fairly long vascular pedicle.
  • (16) It is a comfortable-seeming thing, flexible without being adjustable, giving without being pliant.
  • (17) To keep its grip, the regime uses its network of personal and official ties to Britain’s too pliant monarchy, to gullible congressional politicians, and to business and investment leaders overly impressed by its $1tn (£660bn) in cash reserves and its global investment portfolio.
  • (18) Tolokonnikova has also continued to appeal against her guilty verdict through the Moscow court system, and is one step away from it reaching the country's pliant supreme court.
  • (19) For several years the Liberal Democrat side of the government, in which I served as Nick Clegg’s national security adviser, staved off the woefully unevidenced plan (hawked around Westminster by pliant ministers since 2008) for new powers to force internet companies to retain highly personal communications data (aka the “snooper’s charter”).
  • (20) The British media may be attacked for the weakness of its investigative reporting and the salaciousness and dodgy practices of the tabloids, but I would rather err on the side of a profession that is hard to control than one that is pliant.