biddable

UK/ˈbɪdəbəl/US/ˈbɪdəbəl/

adjectiveC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — bid sits at #2,099neutral

Biddable means willing to do as you are told. A biddable child.

It is faint praise at best, since it describes compliance rather than agreement. A biddable animal is a compliment and a biddable adult usually is not.

Definitions of biddable

1adjectivebiddableWilling to do as you are told.C2
“The pony was biddable enough for a beginner.”

biddable is a quality.

Also accepted in games: compliant, obedient

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*gʷʰedʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*bidjaną — to ask
Proto-West Germanic
*biddjan
Middle English
bidden
English
bid
English, today
biddable

Built from

biddan · Old English — to ask, demand
bēodan · Old English — to offer, announce

From bid + -able. bid comes from Middle English bidden, from Old English - biddan (“to ask, demand”), from Proto-West Germanic biddjan, from Proto-Germanic bidjaną (“to ask”), from Proto-Indo-European gʷʰedʰ-. Conflated with Old English - bēodan (“to offer, announce”) (see Etymology 2 below). Compare West Frisian bidde, Low German bidden, Dutch bidden ("to pray"), German bitten, Danish bede, Norwegian Bokmål be.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

biddable in the wild

The Chippiparai is often regarded as the most intelligent and biddable of India's native dog breeds.
Chippiparai
Due to its intelligence and biddable nature, the breed has successfully been trained as police dogs.
Chippiparai
Llamas' excellent endurance combined with biddable and peaceful natures makes them suitable pack animals for hill walking, unlike more stubborn animals such as mules.
Llama hiking
Horses need to be heavy, strong and biddable.
Er Enish

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the biddan family

bid

biddable — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

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