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Definition
easily led or managed- [We] show them all the tricks that can save them from death. They listen, they are docile—but when it begins again, in their excitement they do everything wrong.Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
docile = easily led or managed
- I don't know," he said; his voice had a sound of helpless docility.Ayn Rand -- Atlas Shrugged
- This request was complied with, and the hunter stood by the side of the pallet, submitting to the wishes of the girl with the docility of a child.James Fenimore Cooper -- The Deerslayer
- Then you must crush his manlike tendencies and make of him the docile beast you want.John Steinbeck -- Travels with Charley
- She sat docile as a doll, with the occasional quiver breaking her stillness.J.D. Robb -- Glory in Death
- The main thing must be to keep the patients clean and docile — drugs will be a help — and their relatives admiring and satisfied.Margaret Atwood -- Alias Grace
- They were like all children—sometimes docile and sometimes wayward.Harriet Jacobs -- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- She looks at me, attentive and docile as she's always been.Susan Ee -- Angelfall
- DAISY takes BERENGER'S arm; he allows himself to be led docilely.Eugene Ionesco -- Rhinoceros
- Thus her silence of docility was misinterpreted.Thomas Hardy -- Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- Then he rips the nightshirt off and flings it over the mule's head, and it becomes docile at once.William Faulkner -- As I Lay Dying
- It was for your docility that I most esteemed you.James Fenimore Cooper -- The Pioneers
- Pa had followed docilely into the field.John Steinbeck -- The Grapes of Wrath
- I did not like to play with Third Wife's daughters, who were as docile and dull as their mother.Amy Tan -- The Joy Luck Club
- Some one both pathetic and admirable in his docility.Khaled Hosseini -- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- He walked across the docile bridge to meet his grinning roommate once again.Henry H. Neff -- The Second Siege
- BLOOM: (Docile, gurgles) I rererepugnosed in rerererepugnant BELLO: (Imperiously) O, get out, you skunk!James Joyce -- Ulysses
- Perhaps this explained their docility.Tom Clancy -- The Hunt for Red October
- Whether Noirtier understood the young man's indecision, or whether he had not full confidence in his docility, he looked uneasily at him.Alexandre Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo
- And Nellie followed docilely after him.John Steinbeck -- The Red Pony