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FRAGILE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Vulnerably delicate
Example:
she has the fragile beauty of youth
Classified under:
Similar:
delicate (exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Easily broken or damaged or destroyed
Example:
a frail craft
Synonyms:
delicate; fragile; frail
Classified under:
Similar:
breakable (capable of being broken or damaged)
Derivation:
fragility (quality of being easily damaged or destroyed)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Lacking substance or significance
Example:
a fragile claim to fame
Synonyms:
flimsy; fragile; slight; tenuous; thin
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
insignificant; unimportant (devoid of importance, meaning, or force)
Context examples:
A condition that is marked by a decrease in bone mass and density, causing bones to become fragile.
(Osteoporosis, NCI Dictionary)
Patients have spiky and fragile hair.
(Netherton Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)
This usually also results in damage to fragile platelets.
(Intrinsic Prothrombin Activation Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)
Skulls of young fragile through weaning.
(IR, Rat Strain, NCI Thesaurus)
A fragile site on the X chromosome is associated with Fragile X Syndrome.
(Chromosome Fragile Site, NCI Thesaurus)
He looked fiercely at Mr. White, and found that fragile creature in the act of handing him a nickel.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
People near you will be fragile, and something is likely to go wrong.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Consequences for the people living in one of the world’s most fragile and disaster-prone mountain regions will range from worsened air pollution to an increase in extreme weather events.
(Bulk of Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2100, SciDev.Net)
The Sahara expands as the Sahel retreats, disrupting the region's fragile savanna ecosystems and human societies.
(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)
There was a crunching of fragile bones, and warm blood ran in his mouth.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
