limber

adj

1. Flexible, pliant, bendable.

   “He's so limber that he can kiss his knee without bending it.”

   “Not yet the bargeman that doth rowe / with long and limber oare”

   “This is a very complicated case, Maude. A lot of ins, a lot of outs. Fortunately, I'm adhering to a pretty strict drug regimen to keep my mind limber.”

verb

1. (transitive)To cause to become limber; to make flexible or pliant.

   “Her stiff hams, that have not been bent to a civility for ten years past, are now limbered into courtesies three deep at every word”

   “Go back to the Island and limber up with a few drafts.”

2. (obsolete)To prepare an artillery piece for transportation (i.e., to attach it to its limber.)

noun

1. A two-wheeled vehicle to which a wheeled artillery piece may be attached for transport. (Some versions have built-in storage bins for ammunition. Either the limber itself or the ammunition box may also be called a caisson.)

   “An' when the smoke 'ad cleared away, before the limber wheels, / There lay the Driver's Brother with 'is 'ead between 'is 'eels.”

   “As the limber gunners went to the rear, his horse trod in a rabbit-hole and came down, throwing him into a depression of the ground.”

   “we covered the rutted, rattling, dusty pot-holed roads of coastal Victoria, six big Walers in front, the cannon at the rear, and that unsprung cart they called a ‘limber’ in the middle.”

2. (in-plural)The shafts or thills of a wagon or carriage.
3. (in-plural)Gutters or conduits on each side of the keelson to allow water to pass to the pump well.