BREAKABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does breakable mean? 

• BREAKABLE (noun)
  The noun BREAKABLE has 1 sense:

1. an article that is fragile and easily broken

  Familiarity information: BREAKABLE used as a noun is very rare.

• BREAKABLE (adjective)
  The adjective BREAKABLE has 1 sense:

1. capable of being broken or damaged

  Familiarity information: BREAKABLE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BREAKABLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An article that is fragile and easily broken

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

pack the breakables separately

Hypernyms ("breakable" is a kind of...):

article (one of a class of artifacts)

• BREAKABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capable of being broken or damaged

Context example:

breakable articles should be packed carefully

Similar:

brickle; brickly; brittle (having little elasticity; hence easily cracked or fractured or snapped)

crumbly; friable (easily broken into small fragments or reduced to powder)

short (tending to crumble or break into flakes due to a large amount of shortening)

delicate; fragile; frail (easily broken or damaged or destroyed)

frangible (capable of being broken)

splintery (subject to breaking into sharp slender pieces)

Attribute:

breakableness (the consistency of something that breaks under pressure)

Antonym:

unbreakable (impossible to break especially under ordinary usage)

Derivation:

break (become separated into pieces or fragments)

break (destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments)

break (become fractured; break or crack on the surface only)

break (stop operating or functioning)

break (break a piece from a whole)

break (go to pieces)

break (ruin completely)

break (destroy the completeness of a set of related items)

breakability (quality of being easily damaged or destroyed)

breakableness (the consistency of something that breaks under pressure)

 Context examples 

Remember that he has the strength of twenty men, and that, though our necks or our windpipes are of the common kind—and therefore breakable or crushable—his are not amenable to mere strength.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The two mongrels were without spirit at all; bones were the only things breakable about them.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)