brittle

brittle

See also: Brittle

English

Etymology

From Middle English britel, brutel, brotel (“brittle”), from Old English *brytel, *bryttol (“brittle, fragile”, literally “prone to or tending to break”); equivalent to brit +‎ -le.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɪtl̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtəl

Adjective

brittle (comparative brittler or more brittle, superlative brittlest or most brittle)

1. Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact.

   Cast iron is much more brittle than forged iron.

   A diamond is hard but brittle.

   • 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer; Nevill Coghill, transl., The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 329:

     'Do you suppose our convent, and I too, / Are insufficient, then, to pray for you? / Thomas, that joke's not good. Your faith is brittle.

2. Not physically tough or tenacious; apt to break or crumble when bending.

   Shortbread is my favorite cold pastry, yet being so brittle it crumbles easily, and a lot goes to waste.

3. (archaeology) Said of rocks and minerals with a conchoidal fracture; capable of being knapped or flaked.
4. Emotionally fragile, easily offended.

   What a brittle personality! A little misunderstanding and he's an emotional wreck.

5. (engineering, computing, of a system) Poorly error- or fault-tolerant; having little in the way of redundancy or defense in depth; susceptible to catastrophic failure in the event of a relatively-minor malfunction or deviance.
6. (informal, proscribed)[1] Diabetes that is characterized by dramatic swings in blood sugar level.

Derived terms

• brittle bone disease
• brittlebush
• brittle cinder
• brittle fracture
• brittlegill
• brittle hair syndrome
• brittlely
• brittleness
• brittle star
• brittlestem
• quasibrittle

 

Translations

able to break or snap easily under stress or pressure

Bulgarian: крехък (bg) (krehǎk), чуплив (bg) (čupliv), трошлив (bg) (trošliv) Catalan: fràgil (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 易碎的，易损坏的 Czech: křehký (cs), lámavý Danish: skrøbelig, skør Dutch: bros (nl), broos (nl) Finnish: hauras (fi) French: fragile (fr) German: spröde (de), brüchig (de), bröckelig, mürbe (de), morsch (de), fragil (de), zerbrechlich (de) Greek: Ancient: καπυρός (kapurós), κραῦρος (kraûros), ψαθυρός (psathurós) Icelandic: brothætt Irish: aibrisc, briosc Italian: fragile (it) Latin: fragosus Macedonian: кр́шлив (kŕšliv), кре́вок (krévok), тро́шлив (tróšliv) Manx: so-vrishey Maori: kōtihetihe, mōwhaki, mōwhakiwhaki, waipawa (of wood) Norman: brouyi, câsuel Norwegian: sprø, skjør Plautdietsch: brosch Polish: kruchy (pl) Portuguese: frágil (pt), quebradiço (pt) Russian: хру́пкий (ru) (xrúpkij), ло́мкий (ru) (lómkij) Scots: frush Spanish: frágil (es), quebradizo, friable (es) Ukrainian: крихкий (kryxkyj), ламкий (lamkyj) Vietnamese: giòn (vi) Welsh: brau (cy)

apt to break or crumble when bending

Bulgarian: крехък (bg) (krehǎk) Catalan: trencadís (ca) Dutch: breekbaar (nl), bros (nl) Finnish: hauras (fi), hapero (fi) French: cassant (fr) German: spröde (de), krümelig, bröselig (de), brüchig (de), bröckelig, mürbe (de), bröslig, krümelnd (de), zerreibbar Greek: Ancient: κραῦρος (kraûros) Irish: aibrisc, briosc Macedonian: кр́шлив (kŕšliv) Russian: хру́пкий (ru) (xrúpkij) Spanish: frágil (es) Welsh: brau (cy)

emotionally fragile, easily offended

Bulgarian: чувствителен (bg) (čuvstvitelen), обидчив (bg) (obidčiv) Czech: přecitlivělý, citlivý (cs) Dutch: kribbig (nl)koel (nl)afstandelijk (nl) Finnish: herkkä (fi), hauras (fi), herkkätunteinen German: reizbar (de), kühl (de), fragil (de), instabil (de) Macedonian: чувстви́телен (čuvstvítelen), о́сетлив (ósetliv) Portuguese: frágil (pt) Russian: чувстви́тельный (ru) (čuvstvítelʹnyj) (first "в" (v) is silent), уязви́мый (ru) (ujazvímyj), беззащи́тный (ru) (bezzaščítnyj), оби́дчивый (ru) (obídčivyj) Ukrainian: чутливий (čutlyvyj) Welsh: bregus (cy)

Noun

brittle (usually uncountable, plural brittles)

1. A confection of caramelized sugar and nuts.

   As a child, my favorite candy was peanut brittle.

2. (by extension) Anything resembling this confection, such as flapjack, a cereal bar, etc.

Synonyms

• brickle

Derived terms

• peanut brittle

Translations

confection of caramelized sugar and nuts

Danish: krokant c Finnish: krokantti (fi) French: croquant (fr) m German: Krokant (de) m Hungarian: grillázs (hu) Norwegian: Bokmål: krokan m Nynorsk: krokan m Russian: козинак (ru) m (kozinak) Spanish: crocante (es) m Swedish: krokant (sv) c

Verb

brittle (third-person singular simple present brittles, present participle brittling, simple past and past participle brittled)

1. (intransitive) To become brittle.
   • 1999, J. Siekmann, ‎Maria T. Pazienza, ‎J. G. Carbonell, Information Extraction: Towards Scalable, Adaptable Systems (page 24)

     The project is based on a similar project, the Class project, which was started by the University of Cornell several years ago under the leadership of Stuart Lynn to preserve brittling old books.

   • 2020, Alys Murray, The Magnolia Sisters

     Her heart fluttered, then stilled when May snapped the image away and her voice brittled.

See also

• break, breakable
• short (adjective)

References

1. Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Merck manual

• brittle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• blitter, triblet