frail \frail\ (fr[=a]l), n. [OE. fraiel, fraile, OF. fraiel,
freel, frael, fr. LL. fraellum.]
A basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and
raisins.
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2. The quantity of raisins -- about thirty-two, fifty-six, or
seventy-five pounds, -- contained in a frail.
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3. A rush for weaving baskets. --Johnson.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
frail \frail\, a. [Compar. frailer (fr[=a]l"[~e]r); superl.
frailest.] [OE. frele, freile, OF. fraile, frele, F.
fr[^e]le, fr. L. fragilis. See Fragile.]
1. Easily broken; fragile; not firm or durable; liable to
fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life;
weak; infirm.
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That I may know how frail I am. --Ps. xxxix.
4.
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An old bent man, worn and frail. --Lowell.
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2. Tender. [Obs.]
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Deep indignation and compassion frail. --Spenser.
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3. Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong
against temptation; weak in resolution; also, unchaste; --
often applied to fallen women.
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Man is frail, and prone to evil. --Jer. Taylor.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
frail
adj 1: physically weak; "an invalid's frail body" [ant: robust]
2: having the attributes of man as opposed to e.g. divine
beings; "I'm only human"; "frail humanity" [syn: fallible,
imperfect, weak]
3: easily broken or damaged or destroyed; "a kite too delicate
to fly safely"; "fragile porcelain plates"; "fragile old
bones"; "a frail craft" [syn: delicate, fragile]
n 1: the weight of a frail (basket) full of raisins or figs;
between 50 and 75 pounds
2: a basket for holding dried fruit (especially raisins or
figs)
WordNet (r) 2.0
218 Moby Thesaurus words for "frail":
Adamic, Adamite, Adamitic, abulic, afraid, ailing, airy,
anthropocentric, anthropological, attenuate, attenuated,
backsliding, boyish, breakable, brittle, brittle as glass,
cachectic, capricious, carnal, changeable, cheap-jack, cobwebby,
consumptive, corruptible, cowardly, crackable, crippled, crisp,
crispy, crumbly, crushable, dainty, debilitated, deciduous,
decrepit, delicate, delicately weak, diaphanous, diluted, drained,
dying, earthy, effeminate, enervated, ephemeral, erring, ethereal,
evanescent, exhausted, fading, failing, faint, fainthearted,
fallen, feeble, feebleminded, fickle, fine, fine-drawn, finespun,
finite, fissile, fleeting, fleshly, flimsy, flitting, fly-by-night,
flying, foible, fracturable, fragile, frailty, frangible, friable,
fugacious, fugitive, gauzy, gimcrack, gimcracky, girlish, gossamer,
gossamery, gracile, healthless, hominal, homocentric, human,
humanistic, ill, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, impure,
in poor health, inconstant, infirm, insubstantial, invalid,
invertebrate, jerry, jerry-built, lacerable, lacy, languishing,
lapsed, light, lightweight, man-centered, misty, momentary,
moribund, mortal, mutable, namby-pamby, nondurable, nonpermanent,
of easy virtue, only human, pale, papery, passing, pasteboardy,
peaked, peaky, peccable, perishable, petty, phthisic, pliable,
poorly, postlapsarian, prodigal, puny, rare, rarefied, recidivist,
recidivistic, reduced, reduced in health, run-down, scissile,
scrawny, shatterable, shattery, shivery, short-lived, sick, sickly,
sissified, skinny, sleazy, slender, slenderish, slight,
slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, small, spineless, splintery,
subtle, svelte, sylphlike, tacky, tellurian, temporal, temporary,
tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinnish,
threadlike, transient, transitive, transitory, unangelic, unchaste,
unclean, undurable, unenduring, ungodly, ungood, unhealthy,
unrighteous, unsaintly, unsound, unstable, unsubstantial,
unvirtuous, unwell, vague, valetudinarian, valetudinary, vice,
virtueless, volatile, vulnerable, wanton, wasp-waisted,
wasting away, watered, watered-down, watery, wayward, weak,
weak-kneed, weak-minded, weak-willed, weakened, weakly, willowy,
wiredrawn, wispy, with low resistance, womanish
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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