Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Easily broken, damaged, or destroyed; frail.
- adj. Lacking physical or emotional strength; delicate.
- adj. Lacking substance; tenuous or flimsy: a fragile claim to fame.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Easily broken; brittle; hence, offering weak resistance to any destroying force; weak; easily destroyed; liable to fail.
- Synonyms Fragile, Frail; weak, infirm, slight, delicate. Fragile is nearly always restricted to the physical; frail applies to the physical, but has also been extended to the moral.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Easily broken; brittle; frail; delicate; easily destroyed.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. easily broken or damaged or destroyed
- adj. vulnerably delicate
- adj. lacking substance or significance
Etymologies
- From Latin fragilis, formed on frag-, the root of frangere ("to break"). Cognate with frail, fraction, fracture. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Old French, from Latin fragilis, from frangere, frag-, to break; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“All the poor countries, all what they call the fragile countries, they have a problem of credibility.”
“-- The Gulf Restoration Network and Center for Biological Diversity have announced their intention to sue the federal government and the state for failing to protect what they describe as the fragile habitat the endangered Gopher Frog calls home.”
“On the Three Rivers Ranger District of the Kootenai National Forest, Tester's bill mandates logging of 3,000 acres per year for 10 years in fragile Yaak grizzly bear habitat, already severely damaged by decades of overcutting.”
Montana To Consider Bill Protecting Fish Habitat and Forest Jobs
“That is exactly what we need today, because household balance sheets are still fragile from the private debt-binge of the last decade.”
The Huffington Post: Marshall Auerback: Does a Weaker Currency Equal Default? Not in the Real World
“While global economic and market environments remain fragile, we saw continued marked improvement in the carrying values of our investment funds during the third quarter," said Chairman and Chief Executive Stephen A. Schwarzman.”
The Wall Street Journal: Blackstone Loss Shrink; Results Top Expectations
“The newborn is in fragile but hopeful condition; he's now able to breathe on his own.”
“The young girl is convinced that it lies hidden in fragile, fleeting things.”
An Interview with Muriel Barbery by Viviana Musumeci, April 15 2008
“There's no chance of coming close to attaining the MDGs at the global level unless we move from bumper-sticker aspiration to policy action in fragile states.”
The Huffington Post: Nicholas van Praag: Prevention Is Better Than Post-Conflict Catch-Up
“The arguments involved whether Benoit should stay home more to take care of the boy, who had a rare genetic syndrome called fragile X syndrome.”
“The word fragile made Remy think of April; he wondered if she was waiting to see him.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fragile’.
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Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
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Fairylike
fairylike, enchanted, pixieish, pixyish, impish, mischievous, fluttery, magical, bewitching, enchanting, fey, otherworldly and 126 more...
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Greg's List
precarious, transient, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, transitoriness, volatility, caducity, span, interregnum, effervescent, mine and 63 more...
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beautiful words
fragile, ebony, etheral, dulcet, lovely, deflowered, rose, rosary, epiphany, lullaby, evanescent, petal and 4 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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no little thing
it bothers me when i hear someone who have experienced something life changing use the phrase: now i appreciate the little things. I DON'T BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY LITTLE THINGS. everything is EXTRAOR...
letters, living, understand, narrow, behavior, personal, need, meant, untamed, world, soldier, 'cause and 241 more...
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favored
visceral, twinkle, whalebone, incandescent, carousel, entangle, brevity, desolate, twirl, deltoid, graceless, tryst and 94 more...
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Buttery
Words that make me feel cozy
Noodle, Nugget, Butter, Soft, Snug, Feather, Socks, Knit, Mug, Curl, Billow, Lounge and 315 more...
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africasunsets's list
serendipity, fragrance, glamour, smitten, nourish, lavish, luxury, wicked, gem, daring, soothe, fantasy and 192 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Beknownst1981's list
I love words, especially the ones I make up with my friends.
translucent meat ..., beknownst (knew), plethora, curmudgeon, wanderlust, actually, differentiate, bearded, hobbit feet, female, sexy time, librarian and 220 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (F)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
faery, fairy cross, fairy ring, falcon, fare-thee-well, farewell-summer, farthing, faun, fawn, felicitous, felicity, fencing and 109 more...
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G & G
GRE , GMAT , TOEFL , IELTS , SAT 。。。
alphabet soup, vernacular, aberrant, abeyance, abet, recant, contrite, reiterate, patois, skew, senate, deliberative and 179 more...
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kenzie's Words
epiphany, rhapsody, melody, cacophany, zenith, meticulous, sly, portent, synchronicity, juggernaut, evensong, script and 99 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fragile.
aligama IN NEW DELHI MANY BUILDINGS ARE FRAGILE. Jan 18, 2013
alandriadenisewalker ~Nice!~ May 23, 2009
sonofgroucho I love the Sting song called "Fragile". Feb 13, 2008
uselessness adj. fra-JEE-lay. "It must be Italian." Dec 23, 2006