Adjacent Words

Fragile definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FRAG'ILE, a. [L. fragilis, from frango, to break.]
1. Brittle; easily broken.
The stalk of ivy is tough, and not fragile.
2. Weak; liable to fail; easily destroyed; as fragile arms.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: easily broken or damaged or destroyed; "a kite too delicate to fly safely"; "fragile porcelain plates"; "fragile old bones"; "a frail craft" [syn: delicate, fragile, frail]
2: vulnerably delicate; "she has the fragile beauty of youth"
3: lacking substance or significance; "slight evidence"; "a tenuous argument"; "a thin plot"; a fragile claim to fame" [syn: flimsy, fragile, slight, tenuous, thin]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle French, from Latin fragilis — more at frail Date: 1521 1. a. easily broken or destroyed <a fragile vase> b. constitutionally delicate ; lacking in vigor <a fragile child> 2. tenuous, slight <fragile hope> • fragility noun Synonyms: fragile, frangible, brittle, crisp, friable mean breaking easily. fragile implies extreme delicacy of material or construction and need for careful handling <a fragile antique chair>. frangible implies susceptibility to being broken without implying weakness or delicacy <frangible stone used for paving>. brittle implies hardness together with lack of elasticity or flexibility or toughness <brittle bones>. crisp implies a firmness and brittleness desirable especially in some foods <crisp lettuce>. friable applies to substances that are easily crumbled or pulverized <friable soil>. Synonym: see in addition weak.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 easily broken; weak. 2 of delicate frame or constitution; not strong. Derivatives: fragilely adv. fragility n. Etymology: F fragile or L fragilis f. frangere break

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Fragile Frag"ile, a. [L. fragilis, from frangere to break; cf. F. fragile. See Break, v. t., and cf. Frail, a.] Easily broken; brittle; frail; delicate; easily destroyed. The state of ivy is tough, and not fragile. --Bacon. Syn: Brittle; infirm; weak; frail; frangible; slight. -- Frag"ile*ly, adv.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe a situation as fragile, you mean that it is weak or uncertain, and unlikely to be able to resist strong pressure or attack. (JOURNALISM) The fragile economies of several southern African nations could be irreparably damaged... His overall condition remained fragile. = unstable ADJ • fragility By mid-1988 there were clear indications of the extreme fragility of the Right-wing coalition. N-UNCOUNT: oft N of n 2. Something that is fragile is easily broken or damaged. He leaned back in his fragile chair. ? sturdy ADJ • fragility Older drivers are more likely to be seriously injured because of the fragility of their bones. N-UNCOUNT: oft N of n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Brittle, frangible, easily broken. 2. Frail, weak, feeble. See infirm.

Moby Thesaurus

breakable, brittle, brittle as glass, capricious, changeable, cheap-jack, cobwebby, corruptible, crackable, crisp, crispy, crumbly, crushable, dainty, deciduous, decrepit, delicate, delicately weak, dying, effeminate, ephemeral, evanescent, fading, feeble, fickle, fissile, fleeting, flimsy, flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fracturable, frail, frangible, friable, fugacious, fugitive, gimcrack, gimcracky, gossamery, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inconstant, infirm, insubstantial, jerry, jerry-built, lacerable, light, lightweight, momentary, mortal, mutable, namby-pamby, nondurable, nonpermanent, papery, passing, pasteboardy, perishable, puny, rickety, scissile, shaky, shatterable, shattery, shivery, short, short-lived, sissified, sleazy, slight, splintery, tacky, temporal, temporary, tenuous, thin, transient, transitive, transitory, undurable, unenduring, unsound, unstable, unsubstantial, volatile, vulnerable, weak, weakly, wispy, womanish