Dictionary

frail en · ADJ · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /fɹeɪl/
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

Meanings

1. Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.
   • Its nest is composed of the frailest materials, and is light and small in proportion to the size of the bird 1831, John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography: Volume 1: Blue-grey Fly-catcher:
   • Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life is fraile, and we may dye to day. c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene i:
2. Weak; infirm.
   • Frail smoke of morning in the air and a sort of muffled hum that is not sound but is not silence either. 1993, John Banville, Ghosts:
   • O as the soft and frail lights break upon your eyelids 1922, Isaac Rosenberg, Dawn:
3. In an infirm state leading one to be easily subject to disease or other health problems, especially regarding the elderly.
4. Mentally fragile.
5. Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.

Forms

Deriveds

unfrail · overfrail · frailsome · frailness · frailly · frail sister · lily-frail · frailish · prefrail

Relateds

fragile · fracture · fragility · frailty · fraction · fractal

Translations (60)

sh krhak (easily broken physically) · es débil (easily broken physically) · es delicado (easily broken physically) · mi kopī (easily broken physically) · pt frágil (weak, infirm) · mi marore (weak, infirm) · pt débil (weak, infirm) · hi दुर्बल (weak, infirm) · fi hauras (easily broken physically) · hi भंगुर (easily broken physically) · bg чуплив (easily broken physically) · fi heiveröinen (weak, infirm) · izh habras (easily broken physically) · eo malforta (weak, infirm) · ru хру́пкий (easily broken physically) · mi tārutu (weak, infirm) · ru ло́мкий (easily broken physically) · es débil (weak, infirm) · fi hauras (mentally fragile) · sh loman (easily broken physically) · mi tāngenge (weak, infirm) · fi hairahtuvainen (liable to fall from virtue) · bg изнежен (weak, infirm) · mk кревок (weak, infirm) · fr fragile (liable to fall from virtue) · pt delicado (easily broken physically) · pt débil (easily broken physically) · tr zayıf (liable to fall from virtue) · izh rappia (easily broken physically) · et habras (easily broken physically) · mi tūoi (weak, infirm) · pl arcydelikatny (easily broken physically) · es frágil (weak, infirm) · ru сла́бый (weak, infirm) · pt frágil (easily broken physically) · mi kōpīpī (easily broken physically) · es frágil (mentally fragile) · de schwach (easily broken physically) · es frágil (easily broken physically) · es delicado (weak, infirm) · ru непро́чный (easily broken physically) · mi hūngoingoi (mentally fragile) · cmn 孱弱 (easily broken physically) · cmn 弱不禁風的 /弱不禁风的 (easily broken physically) · mk кревка (weak, infirm) · es delicado (mentally fragile) · de zierlich (weak, infirm) · es débil (mentally fragile) · tr düşkün (liable to fall from virtue) · pl wątły (easily broken physically) · pt fraco (weak, infirm) · mi kōngongengonge (weak, infirm) · fi heiveröinen (easily broken physically) · el άπλερος (weak, infirm) · pt fraco (liable to fall from virtue) · cmn 脆弱 (easily broken physically) · de gebrechlich (easily broken physically) · bg крехък (easily broken physically) · es frágil (liable to fall from virtue) · mi makuhane (easily broken physically)

frail en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /fɹeɪl/
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

Meanings

1. (dated, slang) A girl.
   • It’s only a frail. Let’s bust her head in. 1985 January 24, Alan Moore, “Night Olympics, Part One”, in Detective Comics, volume 1, number 549:
   • Sullivan, the girl and the butler get to the ground. The girl wears a turtle-neck sweater, a cap slightly sideways, a torn coat, turned-up pants and sneakers. SULLIVAN Why don't you go back with the car... You look about as much like a boy as Mae West. THE GIRL All right, they'll think I'm your frail. 1941, Preston Sturges, “Sullivan's Travels”, in Five Screenplays, →ISBN, page 77:
   • There were five people in the Quirinal bar after dinner, a high-class Italian frail who sat on a stool making persistent conversation against the bartender's bored: “Si … Si … Si,” a light, snobbish Egyptian who was lonely but chary of the woman, and the two Americans. 1934, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter X, in Malcolm Cowley, editor, Tender is the Night […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1951, →OCLC, book IV (Escape: 1925–1929), page 238:
   • She was the roughest, toughest frail, but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale. 1931, Cab Calloway, Irving Mills, Minnie the Moocher:
   • ‘She's pickin' 'em tonight, right on the nose,’ he said. ‘That tall black-headed frail.’ 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 148:

Forms

frail en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /fɹeɪl/
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

Meanings

1. To play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail.

Forms

frail en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /fɹeɪl/
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Middle English frayel, from Old French frael, fraiel, of unknown origin; possibly a dissimilatory variant of flael, flaiel (“flail”).

Meanings

1. A basket made of rushes, used chiefly to hold figs and raisins.
2. The quantity of fruit or other items contained in a frail.
3. A rush for weaving baskets.

Forms

frail en · NOUN · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• /fɹeɪl/
• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. Synonym of farasola (“old unit of weight”).

Forms

Synonyms

farasola

frail en · NOUN · etymology 4

Pronunciation

• /fɹeɪl/
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Meanings

1. (England, dialectal, obsolete) Synonym of flail.
   • The scythe, the sickle and the flail (or "frail", is it is invariably called) - these should surely be incorporated in the county arms, for on their use much of the prosperity of Essex has always rested until now. 1948, C. Henry Warren, The English Counties, Essex: Odhams, page 170:

Forms

Synonyms

flail