Adjacent Words

Frail definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FRAIL, a. [L. fragilis, or from a different root.]
1. Weak; infirm; liable to fail and decay; subject to casualties; easily destroyed; perishable; not firm or durable.
That I may know how frail I am. Psalms 39.
2. Weak in mind or resolution; liable to error deception.
Man is frail, and prone to evil.
3. Weak; easily broken or overset; as a frail bark.
FRAIL, n.
1. A basket made of rushes.
2. A rush for weaving baskets.
3. A certain quantity of raisins, about 75 pounds.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: physically weak; "an invalid's frail body" [ant: robust]
2: wanting in moral strength, courage, or will; having the attributes of man as opposed to e.g. divine beings; "I'm only a fallible human"; "frail humanity" [syn: fallible, frail, imperfect, weak]
3: 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] n
1: the weight of a frail (basket) full of raisins or figs; between 50 and 75 pounds
2: a basket for holding dried fruit (especially raisins or figs)

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French fraile, from Latin fragilis fragile, from frangere Date: 14th century 1. easily led into evil <frail humanity> 2. easily broken or destroyed ; fragile 3. a. physically weak b. slight, unsubstantial Synonyms: see weak • frailly adverb • frailness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 fragile, delicate. 2 in weak health. 3 morally weak; unable to resist temptation. 4 transient, insubstantial. --n. US sl. a woman. Derivatives: frailly adv. frailness n. Etymology: ME f. OF fraile, frele f. L fragilis FRAGILE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Frail Frail, n. [OE. fraiel, fraile, OF. fraiel, freel, frael, fr. LL. fraellum.] A basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and raisins. 2. The quantity of raisins -- about thirty-two, fifty-six, or seventy-five pounds, -- contained in a frail. 3. A rush for weaving baskets. --Johnson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Frail Frail, a. [Compar. Frailer; superl. Frailest.] [OE. frele, freile, OF. fraile, frele, F. fr[^e]le, fr. L. fragilis. See Fragile.] 1. Easily broken; fragile; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life; weak; infirm. That I may know how frail I am. --Ps. xxxix. 4. An old bent man, worn and frail. --Lowell. 2. Tender. [Obs.] Deep indignation and compassion. --Spenser. 3. Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; also, unchaste; -- often applied to fallen women. Man is frail, and prone to evil. --Jer. Taylor.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(frailer, frailest) 1. Someone who is frail is not very strong or healthy. She lay in bed looking particularly frail. = weak ADJ 2. Something that is frail is easily broken or damaged. The frail craft rocked as he clambered in. = fragile ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Fragile, frangible, brittle, easily broken (across). 2. Weak, feeble, fragile. See infirm. 3. Liable to err, easily led astray, of infirm virtue.

Moby Thesaurus

Adamic, Adamite, Adamitic, abulic, afraid, ailing, airy, anthropocentric, anthropological, attenuate, attenuated, backsliding, boyish, breakable, brittle, brittle as glass, cachectic, capricious, carnal, changeable, cheap-jack, cobwebby, consumptive, corruptible, cowardly, crackable, crippled, crisp, crispy, crumbly, crushable, dainty, debilitated, deciduous, decrepit, delicate, delicately weak, diaphanous, diluted, drained, dying, earthy, effeminate, enervated, ephemeral, erring, ethereal, evanescent, exhausted, fading, failing, faint, fainthearted, fallen, feeble, feebleminded, fickle, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, finite, fissile, fleeting, fleshly, flimsy, flitting, fly-by-night, flying, foible, fracturable, fragile, frailty, frangible, friable, fugacious, fugitive, gauzy, gimcrack, gimcracky, girlish, gossamer, gossamery, gracile, healthless, hominal, homocentric, human, humanistic, ill, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, impure, in poor health, inconstant, infirm, insubstantial, invalid, invertebrate, jerry, jerry-built, lacerable, lacy, languishing, lapsed, light, lightweight, man-centered, misty, momentary, moribund, mortal, mutable, namby-pamby, nondurable, nonpermanent, of easy virtue, only human, pale, papery, passing, pasteboardy, peaked, peaky, peccable, perishable, petty, phthisic, pliable, poorly, postlapsarian, prodigal, puny, rare, rarefied, recidivist, recidivistic, reduced, reduced in health, run-down, scissile, scrawny, shatterable, shattery, shivery, short-lived, sick, sickly, sissified, skinny, sleazy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, small, spineless, splintery, subtle, svelte, sylphlike, tacky, tellurian, temporal, temporary, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinnish, threadlike, transient, transitive, transitory, unangelic, unchaste, unclean, undurable, unenduring, ungodly, ungood, unhealthy, unrighteous, unsaintly, unsound, unstable, unsubstantial, unvirtuous, unwell, vague, valetudinarian, valetudinary, vice, virtueless, volatile, vulnerable, wanton, wasp-waisted, wasting away, watered, watered-down, watery, wayward, weak, weak-kneed, weak-minded, weak-willed, weakened, weakly, willowy, wiredrawn, wispy, with low resistance, womanish