flaccid

comparative more flaccid · superlative most flaccid

1. Flabby; lacking firmness or muscle tone.

   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.

   1955, Joseph Heller, chapter 13, in Catch-22, page 140

   Synonyms: limp · Antonyms: firm

2. Soft; floppy.

   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; […]

   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

   1. specificallyNot erect.

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

      2006, Simon LeVay, Sharon McBride Valente, Human Sexuality, page 93

      Synonyms: soft · Antonyms: erect, turgid, hard

3. Lacking energy or vigor.

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

   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