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
- French, from Old French, from Latin fragilis, from frangere, frag-, to break; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.
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.”
The Zero
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fragile’.
-
Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
-
Fairylike
fairylike, enchanted, pixieish, pixyish, impish, mischievous, fluttery, magical, bewitching, enchanting, fey, otherworldly and 126 more...
-
Greg's List
precarious, transient, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, transitoriness, volatility, caducity, span, interregnum, effervescent, mine and 63 more...
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