Definition of BRITTLE

brittle

Meanings

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

  • To become brittle.
  • To gut.

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

Words With Friends Score: 11

brittle is a valid Words With Friends word