- fragile
- fragile 1 Fragile, frangible, brittle, crisp, short, friable mean easily broken. They are, however, not often interchangeable.Fragile (see also WEAK) is applicable to whatever must be handled or treated carefully lest it be broken{
a fragile antique chair
}{a fragile dish
}{a fragile flower
}{I found the skeleton, or, at all events, the larger bones, rendered so fragile by the fierce heat they had been subjected to, that they fell to pieces when handled— Hudson
}{this nation, molded in the heat of battle against tyranny ... is not a fragile thing— W. O. Douglas
}Frangible stresses susceptibility to being broken rather than positive weakness or delicacy of material or construction{frangible stone
}{avoid using frangible materials in ship construction
}{using the buttresses of intellect and imagination to shore up the trembling pillars of our frangible era— Fadiman
}Brittle implies hardness plus frangibility because of the inflexibility of, or lack of elasticity in, the substance of which a thing is made; it also suggests susceptibility to quick snapping or fracture when subjected to pressure or strain{glass is especially brittle
}{as a person ages, his bones grow more brittle
}{brittle[/i] sticks of candy
}The term is often extended to things that are dangerously lacking in elasticity or flexibility{he would take no risks with a thing so brittle as the Roman polity, on which depended the fate of forty-four millions of men— Buchan
}Crisp usually suggests a good quality which makes a thing firm and brittle yet delicate and easily broken or crushed, especially between the teeth{crisp toast
}{crisp lettuce
}In extended use it implies freshness, briskness, cleanness of cut, incisiveness, or other qualities that suggest the opposite of limpness, languor, or slackness{a crisp morning
}{a crisp style
}{a crisp answer
}{a languorous work . . . with occasional interludes of crisp brilliance— Anthony West
}Short implies a tendency to crumble or break readily and is applicable to several kinds of substance{a short biscuit is rich in butter or other fat and is crisp and crumbly when eaten
}{short mortar is difficult to spread because of oversanding
}{short timber is desiccated wood
}{short (or hot-short) steel is brittle when heated beyond a certain point because of an excess of sulfur
}Friable is applicable to substances that are easily crumbled or pulverized{friable soil
}{friable sandstone
}{friable blackboard chalk
}{particles of shale, mica, or other friable and unsound minerals— Bateman
}Antonyms: tough2 frail, *weak, feeble, decrepit, infirmAnalogous words: impotent, *powerless: delicate, dainty (see CHOICE): evanescent, ephemeral, transient, transitoryAntonyms: durable
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
