fragile

1 easily broken attaching the beautiful but fragile ornaments to the Christmas tree is always a touchy operation Synonyms breakable, delicate, frail, frangible Related Words dainty, fine, gossamer; eggshell, flimsy, slight, tenuous; brittle, crisp, crispy, crumbly, crushable, embrittled, flaky (also flakey), friable, shaky, shivery, short; feeble, infirm, soft, spindly, tender, weak; inelastic, inflexible, stiff Near Antonyms compact, firm, hard, rigid, solid, substantial, unyielding; elastic, flexible, resilient, rubberlike, rubbery, springy, stretch, stretchable, supple Antonyms infrangible, nonbreakable, strong, sturdy, tough, unbreakable

2 easily injured without careful handling babies are fragile, so remember to care for them gently Synonyms delicate, tender, frail, sensitiveRelated Words breakable, brittle, crushable, eggshell, frangible, friable; feeble, flimsy, puny, slight, soft, tenuous, weak; nonhardy, perishable, resistless, susceptible, unresistant, vulnerable, yieldingNear Antonyms durable, firm, flinty, hard, hardy, resistant, robust, rugged, solid, sound, stiff, stout, strong, sturdy, substantial; infrangible, nonbreakable, unbreakable; hardened, inured, strengthened, tempered, toughenedAntonyms tough

3 small in degree a fragile possibility that we might emerge from this fiasco unscathed Synonyms remote, frail, negligible, off, outside, slight, slim, smallRelated Words marginal, minimal, minor; little, tinyNear Antonyms great, large; distinct, significant; considerable, goodly, healthy, largish, respectable, significant, sizable (or sizeable), substantial, tidyAntonyms good