tractility
English
Etymology
tractile + -ity
Noun
tractility (uncountable)
- The quality of being tractile (capable of being drawn or stretched out at length).
- Synonym: ductility
- 1673, Robert Boyle, Essays of the Strange Subtilty, Great Efficacy, Determinate Nature of Effluviums, London: M. Pitt, “If the Strange Subtilty of Effluviums,” Chapter 2, p. 8,
- Silver, whose Ductility and Tractility are very much inferiour to those of Gold, was, by my procuring, drawn out to so slender a Wire, that, when we measur’d it, which was somewhat troublesom to do, with a long and accurate measure, we found, that eight Yards of it did not yet fully counterpoise one Grain:
- 1861, John Henry Pepper, The Playbook of Metals, London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, Introduction, p. 4,
- We shall not […] anticipate these chemical details […] but will confine ourselves at present to that potent talisman “Coal,” at whose bidding, and whilst in a state of combustion, the minerals are decomposed and liquefied, and their gritty, brittle, stony qualities changed to those of tractility and extensibility.