I.easily broken, brittle, fragile (class.; esp. freq. in the transf. signif.; cf.: caducus, fluxus).
I. Lit.: “cadi,” Ov. M. 12, 243: “coryli (with tiliae molles),” id. ib. 10, 93: “rami,” Verg. E. 8, 40: “myrtus,” Hor. C. 3, 23, 16: “ratis,” id. ib. 1, 3, 10; cf. “phaselus,” id. ib. 3, 2, 28: “aes malleis,” Plin. 34, 8, 20, § 94; cf.: “saccharon dentibus,” id. 12, 8, 17, § 32: “crystalli centrum,” id. 37, 2, 10, § 28: “caput ictibus parvis,” Gell. 6, 1, 11: “tenuior fragiliorque penna scarabaeorum,” Plin. 11, 28, 34, § 97: “ut fragilis glacies interit ira mora,” Ov. A. A. 1, 347.—Poet.: “aquae,” i. e. ice, Ov. Tr. 3, 10, 26: “fragiles sonitus chartarum,” i. e. crackling, Lucr. 6, 112: “lauri,” Verg. E. 8, 82: “pollicibus fragiles increpuere manus,” Prop. 4 (5), 7, 12. cf. fragor.—
II. Transf., in gen., weak, perishable, frail (physically or mentally): “fragile corpus animus sempiternus movet,” Cic. Rep. 6, 24 fin.; “in fragili corpore odiosa omnis offensio est,” id. Sen. 18, 65; cf.: “(corpora) fragili natura praedita,” Lucr. 1, 581; and absol.: “fragili quaerens illidere dentem, Offendet solido,” Hor. S. 2, 1, 77: fragilissimus alvus, Att. ap. Non. 193, 26.—Of an effeminate man: Julius et fragilis Pediatia (sarcastically in the fem. gen. instead of Pediatius), qs. the delicate Miss Pediatius, Hor. S. 1, 8, 39: “quis enim confidit, sibi semper id stabile et firmum permansurum, quod fragile et caducum sit?” Cic. Fin. 2, 27, 86: “res humanae fragiles caducaeque sunt,” id. Lael. 27, 102; id. Leg. 1, 8, 24; cf.: “divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est,” Sall. C. 1, 4: “fortuna populi,” Cic. Rep. 2, 28 fin.: “nec aliud est aeque fragile in homine (quam memoria),” Plin. 7, 24, 24, § 90: “nulli vita fragilior (quam homini),” id. 7 praef. § 5; cf.: “(hominum) aevum omne et breve et fragile est,” Plin. Pan. 78, 2: “haud aevi fragilis sonipes,” Sil. 3, 386: anni fragiles et inertior aetas, the frail years (of age), Ov. Tr. 4, 8, 3.—Adv. does not occur.
