flaccid

From Latin flaccidus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈflæ(k)sɪd/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -æksɪd, -æsɪd
• Hyphenation: flac‧cid

flaccid (comparative more flaccid, superlative most flaccid)

1. Flabby.
   • 1955, Joseph Heller, chapter 13, in Catch-22, page 140:

     Colonel Korn, a stocky, dark, flaccid man with a shapeless paunch, sat completely relaxed on one of the benches in the front row, his hands clasped comfortably over the top of his bald and swarthy head.

2. Soft; floppy.
   • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 267:

     The combatants with rage most horrible
     Strove, and their eyes started with cracking stare,
     And impotent their tongues they lolled into the air,
     Flaccid and foamy, like a mad dog’s hanging; […]

   1. (specifically, of an erectile organ) Not erect.
      • 2006, Simon LeVay, Sharon McBride Valente, Human Sexuality, page 93:

        They first measured along the top surface of the flaccid penis, [...]

3. Lacking energy or vigor.
   • 2006, Jeff Bloodworth, “"THE PROGRAM FOR BETTER JOBS AND INCOME": WELFARE REFORM, LIBERALISM, AND THE FAILED PRESIDENCY OF JIMMY CARTER.”, in International Social Science Review, volume 81, number 3/4, pages 135–150:

     The flaccid economy of the 1970s rendered Americans even more hostile toward liberal welfare policies.

• firm (Sense 1)
• erect (Sense 2.1)
• turgid (Sense 2.1)

• acute flaccid myelitis

• flaccidly