FRAIL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Frail

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adjective

frail adj. (compar. frailer; superl. frailest)

Easily broken; fragile; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life; weak; infirm. "That I may know how frail I am." "An old bent man, worn and frail."

Tender. (Obs.) "Deep indignation and compassion frail."

Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; also, unchaste; often applied to fallen women. "Man is frail, and prone to evil."

noun

frail n.

A basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and raisins.

The quantity of raisins about thirty-two, fifty-six, or seventy-five pounds, contained in a frail.

A rush for weaving baskets.

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Etymology of 'Frail'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Frail" Quotes from Famous Books

... little travelling cobbler did not know what to do for them: Lasse was so dejected and so aimless. He could not rest; he did not recover; from time to time he broke out into lamentation. He had grown very frail, and could no longer lift his spoon to his mouth without spilling the contents. If they tried to distract ...

— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... seemed that it impressed the boat's crew with a sense of dread that they could not master. It was a condensation of dread and despair, that knowledge of being alone in a frail craft at the mercy of the sea, without water or supplies of any kind, and off a coast which the currents might never let them reach, while at any hour a tempestuous wind might spring up and lash the sea into waves, in which it would be impossible ...

— Fitz the Filibuster • George Manville Fenn

... Mankind, frail parasite of doubt, seeks ever for a sign, conceives no certainty but the enormous certitude of uncertainty. A sign! In death: "Take down, then; but leave me this—and this—for memory. Perhaps—who knows?—it may be true.... But leave me this for memory." In promise: ...

— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson

... on the stairs, and an old man, tall and frail, odorous of pipe smoke, with shaggy, unkept grey hair and a dingy beard, tobacco stained about the mouth, entered uncertainly. He went slowly up to the coffin and stood rolling a blue cotton handkerchief between his hands, seeming so pained and embarrassed ...

— Youth and the Bright Medusa • Willa Cather

... a thousand forms, for had I conceived that my endearments had been lavished on Madam de Warrens, they would not have been less tender, though infinitely more tranquil. But is it possible for man to taste, in their utmost extent, the delights of love? I cannot tell, but I am persuaded my frail existence would have sunk under the ...

— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau

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