Definition of BRITTLE

brittle

Plural: brittles

Noun

  • caramelized sugar cooled in thin sheets
  • A confection of caramelized sugar and nuts.
  • Anything resembling this confection, such as flapjack, a cereal bar, etc.

Adjective Satellite

  • having little elasticity; hence easily cracked or fractured or snapped
    • "brittle bones"
    • "glass is brittle"
  • lacking warmth and generosity of spirit
    • "a brittle and calculating woman"
  • (of metal or glass) not annealed and consequently easily cracked or fractured

Adj

  • Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact; crackly.
  • Not physically tough or tenacious; apt to break or crumble when bending.
  • Tending to fracture in a conchoidal way; capable of being knapped or flaked.
  • Emotionally fragile, easily offended.
  • 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.
  • Characterized by dramatic swings in blood sugar level.

Verb

Verb Forms: brittled, brittling, brittles

  • To cause something to become hard and easily broken.
  • To become brittle.
  • To gut.

Adjective

  • Hard but easily broken or snapped; fragile.

Examples

  • A diamond is hard but brittle.
  • As a child, my favorite candy was peanut brittle.
  • Cast iron is much more brittle than forged iron.
  • His brittle lead quickly shattered after his opponent played a bingo.
  • Shortbread is my favorite cold pastry, yet being so brittle it crumbles easily, and a lot goes to waste.
  • The pressure of the final turns can brittle even the most confident player’s resolve.
  • What a brittle personality! A little misunderstanding and he's an emotional wreck.

Origin / 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.

Scrabble Score: 9

brittle: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
brittle: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
brittle: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 11

brittle: valid Words With Friends Word