biddable
adjective
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A biddable individual is someone you can issue an order to—that is, someone who will do your bidding. The word dates to the late 18th century, and currently our earliest evidence for it is a quote in the Scottish National Dictionary. There are a number of words in English that do what biddable does. Tractable, amenable, and docile are three of them. Biddable is often applied to children and indicates a ready, constant inclination to follow orders, requests, and suggestions. Tractable suggests characteristics that make for easy guiding, leading, ordering, or managing; its antonym intractable (as in "intractable problems") is more common. Amenable indicates a disposition to be agreeable or complaisant as well as a lack of assertive independence. Docile can stress a disposition to submit, either due to guidance and control or to imposition and oppression.
Synonyms
Examples of biddable in a Sentence
Brian Steinberg, Variety, 7 Dec. 2023
Ferro says that as of this week, biddable programmatic inventory is live on the platform, and that the company has expanded its targeting capabilities to include demos (like age and gender) but also geography and Disney Select Audience Segments.
—Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Oct. 2023
Iran infiltrated biddable Shiite militias, and aggrieved Sunnis joined with Syrian ISIS fighters to seize large swaths of Iraqi territory.
—Steven Simon and Adam Weinstein, Foreign Affairs, 27 Sep. 2023
Find the full slate of biddable items here.
—Annie Goldsmith, Town & Country, 4 Dec. 2020
Imran Khan, the cricket legend turned politician, came to power in 2018 with the lightly disguised support of the military, which saw him as a biddable ally.
—Declan Walsh, New York Times, 6 Feb. 2023
Athletic, stylish, biddable, and deceptively tough, the Irish setter takes a backseat to none as a bird-finder deluxe and rugged all-purpose hunter.
—Kyle Wintersteen, Field & Stream, 30 Jan. 2023
Such a defense may be a last resort in nature, but it’s been alleged that a military trainer could condition a biddable dolphin to neutralize an enemy diver, using the creature’s natural defensive abilities, coupled with a weapon of some kind.
—Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 9 Jan. 2023
Border collies, for instance, tend to be more biddable than the average dog.
—Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 30 Apr. 2022
Dictionary Entries Near biddable
Cite this Entry
“Biddable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biddable. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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