In the 2000s Briers was the curmudgeonly and extravagant father Hector MacDonald in the BBC television programme Monarch of the Glen (2000-05), appearing in series 1,2,3 & 7. He appeared in other programmes, see Later Career.
Word Origin and History for malleable Expand. adj. late 14c., capable of being shaped by hammering, from Middle French malleable and directly from Medieval Latin malleabilis, from malleare to beat with a hammer, from Latin malleus hammer (see mallet). Figurative sense, of persons, capable of being adapted first recorded 1610s.
[kleev] /kliv/. verb (used with object), cleft or cleaved or clove, cleft or cleaved or cloven, cleaving. 1. to split or divide by or as if by a cutting blow, especially along a natural line of division, as the grain of wood. 2. to make by or as if by cutting: to cleave a path through the wilderness.