FRAIL • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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

... but her whole frame was the prey of a hereditary disease. The tears in her eyes glistened like small specks. Her balmy breath was so gentle. She was as demure as a lovely flower reflected in the water. Her gait resembled a frail willow, agitated by the wind. Her heart, compared with that of Pi Kan, had one more aperture of intelligence; while her ailment exceeded (in intensity) by three ...

— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... gospel. "If I am considered worthy, there is no vocation I would so gladly follow," was dear Herbert's answer. Those who knew him best would most assuredly have said that he was worthy, compared to the usual standard of frail human nature. ...

— My First Voyage to Southern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... trappers, sad at the loss of one of their number, started down the Platte, with their boat-load of furs, but finding the river too shallow to navigate their frail craft, they were compelled to abandon it. They themselves carried what they could of its contents and made the best of their way on foot, two hundred and fifty miles, to the nearest settlement. In a few days their provisions began to run short, and as game became scarce, they separated, ...

— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... charm, if not their colour) were among the most victorious in that time of the "raining" and reigning influence of such things: and somehow one succumbs a little even now to her as the Queen of that bevy of fair, frail, and occasionally rather ferocious ladies of the Fronde feminine. (The femininity was perhaps most evident in Madame de Chevreuse, and the ferocity in Madame de Montbazon.) Did not Madame de Longueville—did not they all—figuratively speaking, draw that great philosopher Victor Cousin[152] ...

— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... more cheerful and natural since our conversation. He no longer seemed so worried; and once or twice I had caught in him a look of great gentleness and loving-kindness, almost of pity, as towards some young and very frail thing, as ...

— Hauntings • Vernon Lee

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