different between fractional vs frail

English

Etymology

From fraction +? -al.

Pronunciation

• enPR: fr?k?sh?n?l, IPA^(key): /?f?æk.??n.?l/

Adjective

fractional (comparative more fractional, superlative most fractional)

1. Pertaining to a fraction.
2. Divided; fragmentary; incomplete.
3. Very small; minute.
   • 1987, Bill Knox, A Flight from Paris (page 93)

     The two women exchanged a glance, then a fractional nod of agreement.

4. (chemistry) Relating to a process or product of fractional distillation.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

fractional (plural fractionals)

1. (grammar) An expression of a fractional number.

   In English, most ordinals double as fractionals — "third", "fourth", and so on — with the exception of "second", whose corresponding fractional is "half".

2. Partial ownership of a property, such as real estate or a chartered airplane, such that each partial owner has use of the property for only a portion of the time.

   A fractional is much more expensive than a traditional timeshare, but to many people, it's worth it.

3. (chemistry) Relating to a fraction in a material distillation or separation process.

Anagrams

• intrafocal

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Adjective

frail (comparative frailer, superlative frailest)

1. Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish
   • 1831, John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography: Volume 1, Blue-grey Fly-catcher

     Its nest is composed of the frailest materials, and is light and small in proportion to the size of the bird

2. Weak; infirm.
   • 1922, Isaac Rosenberg, Dawn

     O as the soft and frail lights break upon your eyelids

3. Mentally fragile.
4. Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.

Derived terms

• frailly
• frailness

Related terms

Translations

Noun

frail (plural frails)

1. A basket made of rushes, used chiefly to hold figs and raisins.
2. The quantity of fruit or other items contained in a frail.
3. A rush for weaving baskets.
4. (dated, slang) A girl.
   • 1931, Cab Calloway / Irving Mills, ‘Minnie the Moocher’:

     She was the roughest, toughest frail, but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.

   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, p. 148:

     ‘She's pickin' 'em tonight, right on the nose,’ he said. ‘That tall black-headed frail.’

   • 1941, Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels, published in Five Screenplays, ?ISBN, page 77:

     Sullivan, the girl and the butler get to the ground. The girl wears a turtle-neck sweater, a cap slightly sideways, a torn coat, turned-up pants and sneakers.

     SULLIVAN Why don't you go back with the car... You look about as much like a boy as Mae West.

     THE GIRL All right, they'll think I'm your frail.

Verb

frail (third-person singular simple present frails, present participle frailing, simple past and past participle frailed)

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

References

• frail in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• filar, flair