brittlely

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brit·tle

(brĭt′l)

adj. brit·tler, brit·tlest

a. Likely to break, snap, or crack, as when subjected to pressure: brittle bones.

b. Easily damaged or disrupted; fragile: a brittle friendship. See Synonyms at fragile.

a. Difficult to deal with; snappish: a brittle disposition.

b. Lacking warmth of feeling; cold: a reputation for being brittle and aloof.

3. Brilliantly sharp, as in percussive sound.

a. Perishable.

b. Fleeting; transitory.

A confection of caramelized sugar to which nuts are added: walnut brittle.

[Middle English britel, probably from Old English *brytel, from bryttian, to shatter.]

brit′tle·ly (brĭt′l-ē) adv.

brit′tle·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in periodicals archive ?

The Kentland (Newton County Stone) quarry exposes steeply dipping, brittlely deformed, Ordovician-Silurian rocks in the central uplift of a complex crater, which has been highly eroded and buried.

Geological Sciences

3) were subsequently faulted brittlely during an interpreted reactivation of the fault zone.

Provenance and paleogeography of post-Middle Ordovician, pre-Devonian sedimentary basins on the Gander composite terrane, eastern and east-central Maine: implications for Silurian tectonics in the northern Appalachians

One fears that the advantages of Piano's celebrated modesty may be short-lived, and that his larger museums, though often brittlely elegant, may lack the strong aesthetic integrity needed to endure architecture's very long run.