brittle
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brittle/ˈbrɪtl/
▶adjective
- 1 hard but liable to break easily.
- 2 (of a voice) unpleasantly hard and sharp and showing signs of nervousness or instability.
– derivatives
brittlely (or brittly) adverb,
brittleness noun.
brittlely (or brittly) adverb,
brittleness noun.
– origin ME, ult. of Gmc origin and rel. to OE brēotan ‘break up’.
'brittle' also found in these Oxford entries:
antimony
- arsenic
- Bakelite
- bismuth
- brittle bone disease
- butterscotch
- cast iron
- cementite
- cold-short
- cracknel
- crack willow
- crisp
- crunch
- embrittle
- frangible
- glass
- hot-short
- ice
- -le
- martensite
- molybdenum
- osteoporosis
- snap
- tellurium
- tourmaline
