• Labile

    Origin

    Borrowing from la lābilis, from lābor, lābī ("slip; glide, flow").

    Full definition of labile

    Adjective

    labile

    1. Liable to slip, err, fall, or apostatize.
    2. Apt or likely to change.
      • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.12:Pythagoras said that each thing or matter was ever gliding and labile.
    3. (chemistry, of a compound or bond) Kinetically unstable; rapidly cleaved (and possibly reformed).Certain drugs can be conjugated to polymer molecules with a linkage that is labile at low pH to effect controlled release in a cellular endosome.Water ligands typically bind metals in a labile fashion and are rapidly interchanged in aqueous solution.

    Derived terms

    © Wiktionary