fragile
Americanadjective
-
easily broken, shattered, or damaged; delicate; brittle; frail.
a fragile ceramic container; a very fragile alliance.
-
vulnerably delicate, as in appearance.
She has a fragile beauty.
-
lacking in substance or force; flimsy.
a fragile excuse.
adjective
-
able to be broken easily
-
in a weakened physical state
-
delicate; light
a fragile touch
-
slight; tenuous
a fragile link with the past
Related Words
See frail 1.
Other Word Forms
- fragilely adverb
- fragileness noun
- fragility noun
- nonfragile adjective
- nonfragilely adverb
- nonfragileness noun
- nonfragility noun
- overfragile adjective
- unfragile adjective
Etymology
Origin of fragile
First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin fragilis, equivalent to frag- (variant stem of the verb frangere break ) + -ilis -ile
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They warned however that Venezuela's economy remained fragile.
From Barron's
We watched its robot slowly but smoothly make a coffee, scrunch up some socks and clear a table of perilously fragile wine glasses.
From BBC
Before that, United host Manchester City next Saturday with no manager in place to lift their "fragile" confidence.
From BBC
“I’m fascinated with how the line of identity and where you sit in the world is very fragile,” Banks-Davies says.
From Los Angeles Times
Now, something rare is emerging: a fragile glimpse of the childhoods they once knew.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
