Labile
Origin
Borrowing from la lÄbilis, from lÄbor, lÄbÄ« ("slip; glide, flow").
Full definition of labile
Adjective
labile
- Liable to slip, err, fall, or apostatize.
- 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.
- (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.