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.
It arrived aboard a specially chartered plane but was not removed from its large wooden crate marked "fragile".
From BBC
The figures underscore that the economy was fragile even before the outbreak of Middle East conflict, which has caused a major energy shock that could have a ripple effect around the world.
From BBC
"I don't see a new wave of young people coming into organisations wanting to work from home, being more vulnerable, more fragile. I don't see that," Amitrano said.
From BBC
For decades, the government managed a fragile truce with undocumented immigrants, who in return for paying taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, would not have their financial disclosures given to immigration enforcement agencies.
From Salon
Contagion has spread across the wider region: This week, Egypt’s pound crashed to a record low against the dollar on concerns that more expensive energy imports will strain fragile government finances.
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.
