English▸ adjective technical liable to change; easily altered:
persons whose blood pressure is more labile will carry an enhanced risk of heart attack
we may be the most labile culture in all history.
▪ of or characterized by emotions that are easily aroused or freely expressed, and that tend to alter quickly and spontaneously; emotionally unstable:
mood seemed generally appropriate, but the patient was often labile.
▪ Chemistry easily broken down or displaced:
the breakage of labile bonds
[in combination] a heat-labile protein.
– ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense ‘liable to err or sin’): from late Latin labilis, from labi ‘to fall’.