Word Study
britt |
brittanic |
brittany |
brittany spaniel |
britten |
Brittle
| brittle bladder fern
| brittle bush
| brittle fern
| brittle maidenhair
| brittle maidenhair fern
HYPHEN
WORDNET DICTIONARY
CIDE DICTIONARY
OXFORD DICTIONARY
THESAURUS
ROGET THESAURUS
Brittle
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun Brittle has 1 sense
- brittle(n = noun.food) toffee, toffy - caramelized sugar cooled in thin sheets; Array is a kind of candy, confect
has particulars: peanut brittle
Adjective Brittle has 3 senses
- brittle(s = adj.all) brickle, brickly - having little elasticity; hence easily cracked or fractured or snapped; "brittle bones"; "glass is brittle"; "`brickle' and `brickly' are dialectal" Derived form noun brittleness1
- brittle(s = adj.all) Array - lacking warmth and generosity of spirit; "a brittle and calculating woman"
- brittle(s = adj.all) unannealed - (of metal or glass) not annealed and consequently easily cracked or fractured; Array Derived form noun brittleness1
CIDE DICTIONARY
Brittle, a. [OE. britel, brutel, AS. bryttian to dispense, fr. breótan to break; akin to Icel. brytja, Sw. bryta, Dan. bryde. Cf. Brickle.].
Easily broken; apt to break; fragile; not tough or tenacious<-- contrast to flexible; usually hard -->. [1913 Webster]
"Farewell, thou pretty, brittle piece
Of fine-cut crystal." [1913 Webster]
Of fine-cut crystal." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
Brittle, adj. & n.
--adj. hard and fragile; apt to break.
--n. a brittle sweet made from nuts and set melted sugar.
--adj. hard and fragile; apt to break.
--n. a brittle sweet made from nuts and set melted sugar.
Idiom
brittle-bone disease = OSTEOPOROSIS. brittle-star an echinoderm of the class Ophiuroidea, with long brittle arms radiating from a small central body.
Derivative
brittlely adv. brittleness n. brittly adv.
Etymology
ME ult. f. a Gmc root rel. to OE breotan break up
THESAURUS
Brittle
atrophied, breakable, brittle as glass, capricious, changeable, cheap-jack, cobwebby, corruptible, crackable, crisp, crispy, crumbly, crump, crushable, dainty, deciduous, delicate, delicately weak, desiccated, dried-up, dying, effeminate, emaciated, ephemeral, evanescent, fading, fickle, fissile, fleeting, flimsy, flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fracturable, fragile, frail, frangible, friable, fugacious, fugitive, gimcrack, gimcracky, gossamery, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inconstant, insecure, insubstantial, jerry, jerry-built, lacerable, light, lightweight, momentary, mortal, mutable, namby-pamby, nondurable, nonpermanent, papery, parchmenty, passing, pasteboardy, perishable, puny, scissile, sensitive, sere, shatterable, shattery, shivery, short-lived, shriveled, shrunken, sissified, sleazy, slight, splintery, tacky, temporal, temporary, transient, transitive, transitory, undurable, unenduring, unstable, unsubstantial, volatile, vulnerable, wasted, weak, wilted, wispy, withered, wizened, womanish, wrinkledROGET THESAURUS
Brittle
Brittleness
N brittleness, fragility, friability, frangibility, fissibility, house of cards, house of glass, brittle, brash, breakable, weak, frangible, fragile, frail, gimcrack, shivery, fissile, splitting, lacerable, splintery, crisp, crimp, short, brittle as glass.
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