accommodating

1. 1
   adjective

   Willing to do what others want; helpful and obliging.

   Her manager was remarkably accommodating about the change in working hours.

   The committee took an accommodating stance toward late submissions this term.

   Similarobliging, helpful, cooperative, flexible, considerate

   Oppositeuncooperative, unhelpful, inflexible, obstructive

   Note

   Here the word behaves as a true adjective. It grades (more accommodating, most accommodating) and takes intensifiers such as very and extremely. That is the quickest test to tell it from the verb form, which takes an object: an accommodating neighbor, but a hotel accommodating guests. The attitude is often tied to a topic with about or when it comes to, as in accommodating about a schedule change.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of accommodate.

   The airline is accommodating passengers whose flights were canceled overnight.

   Accommodating so many requests at once strained the small support team.

   Note

   The full range of the verb stands behind this form: housing guests, having room for a crowd, adapting to circumstances. The adapting sense is often reflexive, as in accommodating oneself to new rules. After be it forms progressive tenses. As a gerund it fills a noun's slot, as in accommodating every request took weeks.

3. 3
   adjective

   Easily swayed or led, with no firm principles and open to corruption.

   The minister grew ever more accommodating as the bribes from contractors increased.

   His conscience was conveniently accommodating whenever a profitable deal demanded it.

   Similarpliable, compliant, corruptible, venal, flexible

   Oppositeincorruptible, principled, upright, unbending

   Note

   The same pliability, seen from the other side. Where the obliging sense praises someone who bends to help, this one faults someone who bends to anything. Nothing in the word itself signals which is meant. Context does the work: bribes, a convenient conscience or a lack of principle turn the compliment into censure.

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