Meaning

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

Definitions by Sense

1. Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact.
2. Not physically tough or tenacious; apt to break or crumble when bending.
3. (archaeology, of rocks, minerals, etc) Tending to fracture in a conchoidal way; capable of being knapped or flaked.
4. Emotionally fragile, easily offended.
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, of diabetes) Characterized by dramatic swings in blood sugar level.
7. A confection of caramelized sugar and nuts.
8. (by extension) Anything resembling this confection, such as flapjack, a cereal bar, etc.

Example Sentences

Near-synonym: crackly

Cast iron is much more brittle than forged iron.

A diamond is hard but brittle.

'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.

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

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

As a child, my favorite candy was peanut brittle.

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.

Word Forms

• brittler
• more brittle
• brittlest
• most brittle
• brittles
• brittling
• brittled

Synonyms for brittle

Antonyms for brittle

Related Words

When Should You Use Brittle?

Use brittle when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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