elastic

• elastick (obsolete)

From French élastique, from New Latin elasticus (“elastic”), from Ancient Greek ἐλαστός (elastós), alternative form of ἐλατός (elatós, “ductile”) (cf. ἐλατήρ (elatḗr, “a driver, hurler”)), from ἐλαύνω (elaúnō, “to drive, set in motion, push, strike, beat out”).

• IPA^(key): /iˈlæstɪk/, /əˈlæstɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æstɪk
• Hyphenation: elas‧tic

elastic (comparative more elastic, superlative most elastic)

1. Capable of stretching; particularly, capable of stretching so as to return to an original shape or size when force is released.

   The rope is somewhat elastic, so expect it to give when you pull on it.

   • 1820, Encyclopaedia Britannica; Or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature‎^[1], 6th edition, volume 20, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, page 501:

     In trumpets for assisting the hearing, all reverbation of the trumpet must be avoided. It must be made thick, of the least elastic materials, and covered with cloth externally. For all reverbation lasts for a short time, and produces new sounds which mix with those which are coming in.

2. Made of elastic.

   elastic band

3. Of clothing, elasticated.
4. (economics) Sensitive to changes in price.

   Demand for entertainment is more elastic than demand for energy.

5. springy; bouncy; vivacious
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:

     He could see that she was tastefully, though not richly, dressed, and that she walked with an elastic step that revealed a light heart and the vigor of perfect health. Her face, of course, he could not analyze, since he had caught only the one brief but convincing glimpse of it.

6. Pervasive, all-encompassing.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 74:

     It was now about six o'clock, and that first freshness was on the air, which is to the day what youth is to life,—so light, so elastic, so sweet, and so brief:...

7. Able to return quickly to a former state or condition, after being depressed or overtaxed; having power to recover easily from shocks and trials.

   elastic spirits; an elastic constitution

• stretchy
• stretchable

• anelastic
• inelastic
• nonelastic

• → Malay: elastik

elastic (countable and uncountable, plural elastics)

1. (uncountable) An elastic material used in clothing, particularly in waistbands and cuffs.

   running shorts use elastic to eliminate the need for a belt

2. (Canada, countable) An elastic band.
3. (Northeastern US) Specifically, a hair tie.

• “elastic”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “elastic”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “elastic”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Altices, cislate, astelic, Castiel, laciest, latices, salicet, Castile

Borrowed from French élastique.

elastic m or n (feminine singular elastică, masculine plural elastici, feminine and neuter plural elastice)

1. elastic