frangible, a.
(ˈfrændʒɪb(ə)l)
[a. OF. frangible, as if ad. L. *frangibil-is, f. frangĕre to break.]
Capable of being broken, breakable.
| c 1440 Songs & Carols (Percy Soc.) 65 An adamant stone, it is not frangebyll With no thyng but with mylke of a gett. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 320 The frangabyll tyn, to Iubyter, yf ȝe can dyscus. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. ii. 129 If of hard stone, or of soft, frangible, and easie. 1647 Jer. Taylor Lib. Proph. vi. 121 The Councell is blasphemous in saying that Christs glorified body is passible and frangible by naturall manducation. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 383 Your ships..are but made up of..frangible materials. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 223 Hardness from 7 to 9, difficultly frangible. 1865 Cornh. Mag. Sept. 259 Whenever..the housemaid [had] broken any little frangible article. 1883 Harper's Mag. Jan. 192/2 The least frangible rays predominate. |
b. as n. in pl. Things breakable. nonce-use.
| 1824 Mirror III. 19/2 Strut around your room..to the manifest terror of all frangibles in your reach. |
Hence ˈfrangibleness.
| 1676 H. More Remarks 100 The lightness and frangibleness of Glass. |