Frail

/fɹeɪl/ · adjective

Meaning

Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish..

Definitions by Sense

1. Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.
2. Weak; infirm.
3. (medicine) In an infirm state leading one to be easily subject to disease or other health problems, especially regarding the elderly.
4. Mentally fragile.
5. Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.
6. (dated, slang) A girl.
7. To play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail.
8. A basket made of rushes, used chiefly to hold figs and raisins.

Example Sentences

Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life is fraile, and we may dye to day.

Its nest is composed of the frailest materials, and is light and small in proportion to the size of the bird

Frail smoke of morning in the air and a sort of muffled hum that is not sound but is not silence either.

O as the soft and frail lights break upon your eyelids

She was the roughest, toughest frail, but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.

There were five people in the Quirinal bar after dinner, a high-class Italian frail who sat on a stool making persistent conversation against the bartender's bored: “Si … Si … Si,” a light, snobbish Egyptian who was lonely but chary of the woman, and the two Americans.

‘She's pickin' 'em tonight, right on the nose,’ he said. ‘That tall black-headed frail.’

Sullivan, the girl and the butler get to the ground. The girl wears a turtle-neck sweater, a cap slightly sideways, a torn coat, turned-up pants and sneakers. SULLIVAN Why don't you go back with the car... You look about as much like a boy as Mae West. THE GIRL All right, they'll think I'm your frail.

Synonyms for frail

Antonyms for frail

Related Words

Word Forms

• frailer
• frailest
• frails
• frailing
• frailed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions