Adjective: brittle
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
| Comparative | brittler |
| Superlative | brittlest |
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more brittle |
| Superlative | most brittle |
Sample Sentences
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Near-synonyms: crackly, (technical) brash
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Cast iron is much more brittle than forged iron.
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A diamond is hard but brittle.
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'Do you suppose our convent, and I too,
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Are insufficient, then, to pray for you?
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Thomas, that joke's not good. Your faith is brittle. [1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 329:]
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Shortbread is my favorite cold pastry, yet being so brittle it crumbles easily, and a lot goes to waste.
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What a brittle person! A little misunderstanding and he's an emotional wreck.
Adjectives inflected like brittle
serene,
severe,
secure,
sedate,
wheelie,
simple,
complete,
fulsome,
sprightlie,
discrete,
plosive,
bizarre,
brusque,
brittle,
wholesome,
sincere,
shystie,
loveable,
prophane,
terrible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
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.