frail

Meanings

Adjective

• Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish
• Weak; infirm.
• Mentally fragile.
• Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.

Noun

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

Verb

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

Origin

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