Frail

• POS: Adjective, Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

Frail, n. [OE. fraiel, fraile, OF. fraiel, freel, frael, fr. LL. fraellum.].

•  A basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and raisins.  [1913 Webster]
•  The quantity of raisins -- about thirty-two, fifty-six, or seventy-five pounds, -- contained in a frail.  [1913 Webster]
•  A rush for weaving baskets.  Johnson.  [1913 Webster]

Frail, a. [OE. frele, freile, OF. fraile, frele, F. frêle, fr. L. fragilis. See Fragile.].

•  Easily broken; fragile; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life; weak; infirm.  [1913 Webster]

  "That I may know how frail I am."  [1913 Webster]

  "An old bent man, worn and frail."  [1913 Webster]
•  Tender.  [1913 Webster]

  "Deep indignation and compassion frail."  [1913 Webster]
•  Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; also, unchaste; -- often applied to fallen women.  [1913 Webster]

  "Man is frail, and prone to evil."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Frail, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 fragile, delicate.
2 in weak health.
3 morally weak; unable to resist temptation.
4 transient, insubstantial.
--n. US sl. a woman.

Derivative

frailly adv. frailness n.

Etymology

ME f. OF fraile, frele f. L fragilis FRAGILE

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

Frail

Irresolution

N irresolution, infirmity of purpose, indecision, indetermination, undetermination, unsettlement, uncertainty, demur, suspense, hesitating, hesitation, hesitancy, vacillation, changeableness, fluctuation, alternation, caprice, fickleness, levity, legerete, pliancy, weakness, timidity, cowardice, half measures, waverer, ass between two bundles of hay, shuttlecock, butterfly, wimp, doughface, irresolute, infirm of purpose, double-minded, half-hearted, undecided, unresolved, undetermined, shilly-shally, fidgety, tremulous, hesitating, off one's balance, at a loss, vacillating, unsteady, unsteadfast, fickle, without ballast, capricious, volatile, frothy, light, lightsome, light-minded, giddy, fast and loose, weak, feeble-minded, frail, timid, wimpish, wimpy, cowardly, dough-faced, facile, pliant, unable to say 'no', easy-going revocable, reversible, irresolutely, irresolved, irresolvedly, in faltering accents, off and on, from pillar to post, seesaw, Int, how happy could I be with either!.

Imperfection

N imperfection, imperfectness, deficiency, inadequacy, peccancy, immaturity, fault, defect, weak point, screw loose, flaw, gap, twist, taint, attainder, bar sinister, hole in one's coat, blemish, weakness, half blood, shortcoming, drawback, seamy side, mediocrity, no great shakes, no great catch, not much to boast of, one-horse shay, imperfect, not perfect, deficient, defective, faulty, unsound, tainted, out of order, out of tune, cracked, leaky, sprung, warped, lame, injured, peccant, frail, inadequate, crude, incomplete, found wanting, below par, short-handed, below its full strength, under its full strength, below its full complement, indifferent, middling, ordinary, mediocre, average, so-so, coucicouci, milk and water, tolerable, fair, passable, pretty well, pretty good, rather good, moderately good, good, good enough, well enough, adequate, decent, not bad, not amiss, inobjectionable, unobjectionable, admissible, bearable, only better than nothing, secondary, inferior, second-rate, second-best, one-horse, almost, to a limited extent, rather, pretty, moderately, passing, only, considering, all things considered, enough, surgit amari aliquid.

Impurity

N impurity, uncleanness, immodesty, grossness, indelicacy, indecency, impudicity, obscenity, ribaldry, Fescennine, smut, bawdry, double entente, equivoque, concupiscence, lust, carnality, flesh, salacity, pruriency, lechery, lasciviency, lubricity, Sadism, sapphism, incontinence, intrigue, faux pas, amour, amourette, gallantry, debauchery, libertinish, libertinage, fornication, liaison, wenching, venery, dissipation, seduction, defloration, defilement, abuse, violation, rape, incest, prostitution, social evil, harlotry, stupration, whoredom, concubinage, cuckoldom, adultery, advoutry, crim, con, free love, seraglio, harem, brothel, bagnio, stew, bawdyhouse, cat house, lupanar, house of ill fame, bordel, bordello, impure, unclean, not to be mentioned to ears polite, immodest, shameless, indecorous, indelicate, indecent, Fescennine, loose, risque, coarse, gross, broad, free, equivocal, smutty, fulsome, ribald, obscene, bawdy, pornographic, concupiscent, prurient, lickerish, rampant, lustful, carnal, carnal-minded, lewd, lascivious, lecherous, libidinous, erotic, ruttish, salacious, Paphian, voluptuous, goatish, must, musty, unchaste, light, wanton, licentious, debauched, dissolute, of loose character, of easy virtue, frail, gay, riggish, incontinent, meretricious, rakish, gallant, dissipated, no better than she should be, on the town, on the streets, on the pave, on the loose, adulterous, incestuous, bestial.

Weakness

N weakness, debility, atony, relaxation, languor, enervation, impotence, infirmity, effeminacy, feminality, fragility, flaccidity, inactivity, anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood, declension of strength, loss of strength, failure of strength, delicacy, invalidation, decrepitude, asthenia, adynamy, cachexy, cachexia, sprain, strain, reed, thread, rope of sand, house of cards, softling, weakling, infant, youth, weak, feeble, debile, impotent, relaxed, unnerved sapless, strengthless, powerless, weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic, asthenic, nervous, soft, effeminate, feminate, womanly, frail, fragile, shattery, flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread, rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky, craichy, drooping, tottering, broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken, crazy, shaky, palsied, decrepit, languid, poor, infirm, faint, faintish, sickly, dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete, weather-beaten, decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear, unstrengthened, unsupported, unaided, unassisted, aidless, defenseless, cantilevered (support), on its last legs, weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat, weak as water, weak as water gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water, colorless, non sum qualis eram.

Vice

N vice, evil-doing, evil courses, wrongdoing, wickedness, viciousness, iniquity, peccability, demerit, sin, Adam, old Adam, offending Adam, immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals, enphagy, dophagy, exophagy, want of principle, want of ballast, obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity, depravity, pollution, hardness of heart, brutality, corruption, knavery, profligacy, flagrancy, atrocity, cannibalism, lesbianism, Sadism, infirmity, weakness, weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection, error, weak side, foible, failing, failure, crying sin, besetting sin, defect, deficiency, cloven foot, lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den, gusto picaresco, fault, crime, criminality, sinner, brothel, gambling house, joint, opium den, shooting gallery, crack house, vicious, sinful, sinning, wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal, naughty, incorrect, unduteous, undutiful, unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores, indecorous, unseemly, improper, dissolute, profligate, scampish, unworthy, worthless, desertless, disgraceful, recreant, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, discreditable, disreputable, Sadistic, base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous, flagrant, flagitious, atrocious, incarnate, accursed, Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish, miscreated, misbegotten, demoralized, corrupt, depraved, evil-minded, evil-disposed, ill-conditioned, malevolent, heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless, abandoned, lost to virtue, unconscionable, sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity, incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for, culpable, reprehensible, unjustifiable, indefensible, inexcusable, inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible, weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect, indiscrete, demoralizing, degrading, wrong, sinfully, without excuse, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, genus est mortis male vivere, mala mens malus animus, nemo repente fuit turpissimus, the trail of the serpent is over them all, to sanction vice and hunt decorum down.

Brittleness

N brittleness, fragility, friability, frangibility, fissibility, house of cards, house of glass, brittle, brash, breakable, weak, frangible, fragile, frail, gimcrack, shivery, fissile, splitting, lacerable, splintery, crisp, crimp, short, brittle as glass.