Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Easily broken, damaged, or destroyed.
- adjective Lacking physical or emotional strength; delicate.
- adjective Lacking substance; tenuous or flimsy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Easily broken; brittle; frail; delicate; easily destroyed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Easily
broken ordestroyed , and thus often ofsubtle orintricate structure .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective easily broken or damaged or destroyed
- adjective vulnerably delicate
- adjective lacking substance or significance
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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-- 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.
Homepage 2010
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"All the poor countries, all what they call the fragile countries, they have a problem of credibility."
NPR Topics: News 2010
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The newborn is in fragile but hopeful condition; he's now able to breathe on his own.
Bombs in Morelia 2009
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That is exactly what we need today, because household balance sheets are still fragile from the private debt-binge of the last decade.
Marshall Auerback: Does a Weaker Currency Equal Default? Not in the Real World Marshall Auerback 2010
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The newborn is in fragile but hopeful condition; he's now able to breathe on his own.
Bombs in Morelia 2009
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The newborn is in fragile but hopeful condition; he's now able to breathe on his own.
Bombs in Morelia 2009
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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 2009
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That is exactly what we need today, because household balance sheets are still fragile from the private debt-binge of the last decade.
Marshall Auerback: Does a Weaker Currency Equal Default? Not in the Real World Marshall Auerback 2010
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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 2009
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"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.
Blackstone Loss Shrink; Results Top Expectations Nathan Becker 2010
uselessness commented on the word fragile
adj. fra-JEE-lay. "It must be Italian."
December 23, 2006
sonofgroucho commented on the word fragile
I love the Sting song called "Fragile".
February 13, 2008
alandriadenisewalker commented on the word fragile
~Nice!~
May 23, 2009
aligama commented on the word fragile
IN NEW DELHI MANY BUILDINGS ARE FRAGILE.
January 18, 2013