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Elastic   /ɪlˈæstɪk/   Listen
adjective
Elastic  adj.  
1.
Springing back; having a power or inherent property of returning to the form from which a substance is bent, drawn, pressed, or twisted; springy; having the power of rebounding; as, a bow is elastic; the air is elastic; India rubber is elastic. "Capable of being drawn out by force like a piece of elastic gum, and by its own elasticity returning, when the force is removed, to its former position."
2.
Able to return quickly to a former state or condition, after being depressed or overtaxed; having power to recover easily from shocks and trials; as, elastic spirits; an elastic constitution.
Elastic bitumen. (Min.) See Elaterite.
Elastic curve.
(a)
(Geom.) The curve made by a thin elastic rod fixed horizontally at one end and loaded at the other.
(b)
(Mech.) The figure assumed by the longitudinal axis of an originally straight bar under any system of bending forces.
Elastic fluids, those which have the property of expanding in all directions on the removal of external pressure, as the air, steam, and other gases and vapors.
Elastic limit (Mech.), the limit of distortion, by bending, stretching, etc., that a body can undergo and yet return to its original form when relieved from stress; also, the unit force or stress required to produce this distortion. Within the elastic limit the distortion is directly proportional to the stress producing it.
Elastic tissue (Anat.), a variety of connective tissue consisting of a network of slender and very elastic fibers which are but slightly affected by acids or alkalies.
Gum elastic, caoutchouc.


noun
Elastic  n.  An elastic woven fabric, as a belt, braces or suspenders, etc., made in part of India rubber. (Colloq.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Elastic" Quotes from Famous Books



... common a substance! How few rightly esteem the importance of it to the progress of science, and the moral advancement of mankind!—There is no production of nature or art equally adapted to the purposes to which the chemist applies it. Cork consists of a soft, highly elastic substance, as a basis, having diffused throughout a matter with properties resembling wax, tallow, and resin, yet dissimilar to all of these, and termed suberin. This renders it perfectly impermeable to fluids, and, in a great measure, even to gases. It is thus the fittest ...
— Familiar Letters of Chemistry • Justus Liebig
... (also spelt guiso or guisoc; Dipterocarpus guiso—Bl.), a wood of red color, which is strong, durable, tough, and elastic; it produces logs 75 feet long by 24 inches square, and is now used in Hongkong for wharf-decks and flooring, but in Manila for carriage shafts (U.S. Gazetteer of Philippine Islands). Blanco says that ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVIII, 1617-1620 • Various
... Euphrasia's windows, like the polar bears in their cage at the Jardin des Plantes, with his right hand thrust beneath his waistcoat in the region of the heart, which he was fit to tear from his bosom, but as yet he had only wrenched at the elastic of his braces. ...
— Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories • Edited by Julian Hawthorne
... make my poor grand groan without getting one vigorous, vital tone. Why? Because elasticity is absent, and will always be absent, where the fingers are not allowed to make the music. The springiest wrist, the most supple forearm, the lightest upper arm cannot compensate for the absence of an elastic finger-stroke. It is what lightens up and gives variety of color to a performance. You are all after tone-quantity and neglect touch—touch, the ...
— Old Fogy - His Musical Opinions and Grotesques • James Huneker
... elastic for ordinary use. It stretched itself and embraced pieces of everything that medicine men of all ages have manufactured. It approved and stole from Freemasonry; looted the Latter-day Rosicrucians of ...
— The Lock And Key Library - Classic Mystery And Detective Stories, Modern English • Various


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