Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday January 27, 2004
frangible \FRAN-juh-buhl\
, adjective:
Capable of being broken; brittle; fragile; easily broken.
That's because Federal Aviation Administration regulations call for a "sturdy" but "frangible" -- or breakaway -- door. "It must be able to break away at the lock, the hinge or the door handle" to allow pilots to get out in emergencies, Olsen says.
-- Blake Morrison, "Flight decks vulnerable to passenger attacks", USA Today, January 5, 2001
The red-gray, meringuelike substance ices some of the cave's surfaces and ledges like cake frosting, from a millimeter to several inches thick, and is so frangible you could cut it with a butter knife.
-- Peter Nelson, "The Cave That Holds Clues To Life On Mars", National Wildlife, August/September 1996
When he talks to me about these complex and frangible connections, I listen, I sympathize, and I remember how it was all those years ago with Lionel and Myra, when we were growing up.
-- Richard Bausch, Someone to Watch Over Me
Frangible ultimately derives from Latin frangere, "to break."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for frangible
