[brit-l] 
adjective, -tler, -tlest, noun, verb, -tled, -tling.| 1. | having hardness and rigidity but little tensile strength; breaking readily with a comparatively smooth fracture, as glass. |
| 2. | easily damaged or destroyed; fragile; frail: a brittle marriage. |
| 3. | lacking warmth, sensitivity, or compassion; aloof; self-centered: a self-possessed, cool, and rather brittle person. |
| 4. | having a sharp, tense quality: a brittle tone of voice. |
| 5. | unstable or impermanent; evanescent. |
| 6. | a confection of melted sugar, usually with nuts, brittle when cooled: peanut brittle. |
| 7. | to be or become brittle; crumble. |
| brit·tle (brĭt'l) adj. brit·tler, brit·tlest
[Middle English britel, probably from Old English *brytel, from bryttian, to shatter.] brit'tle·ly (brĭt'l-ē) adv., brit'tle·ness n. |
| brittle (brĭt'l) Pronunciation Key
Having a tendency to break when subject to high stress. Brittle materials have undergone very little strain when they reach their elastic limit, and tend to break at that limit. Compare ductile. |
brittle jargon
Said of software that is functional but easily broken by changes in operating environment or configuration, or by any minor tweak to the software itself. Also, any system that responds inappropriately and disastrously to abnormal but expected external stimuli; e.g. a file system that is usually totally scrambled by a power failure is said to be brittle. This term is often used to describe the results of a research effort that were never intended to be robust, but it can be applied to commercially developed software, which displays the quality far more often than it ought to.
Opposite of robust.
[The Jargon File]
(1995-05-09)