breakly

adj, adv — 2 senses

breakly

adj

Etymology From breakle + -y and/or break + -ly. Compare German zerbrechlich (“fragile”).

1

Apt to, capable of, or tending to break; fragile; brittle.

  • Our ash is not tough and hard like that, but has an open grain, and is among the most brash or breakly of our timbers.1842, Edmund Ruffin, Farmers' register:
  • Daylight was breakly dimly through wild-looking clouds upon a world of tumultuous waters.1889, Charles Lotin Hildreth, The mysterious city of Oo: adventures in Orbello Land:
1 more example
  • "I never thought I 'd say what I 'm going to," she said at last; "it seems indecent; but I can't have you sitting around this way, acting as if I was a piece of cracked chiny that you'd got to handle mighty gingerly or it would drop all to pieces. I ain't so breakly. [...]"1893, Bessie Chandler, A woman who failed: and others:

breakly

adv

Etymology From breakle + -y and/or break + -ly. Compare German zerbrechlich (“fragile”).

1

In a breakly manner.

  • Surface longitudinal breakly furrowed, slight lustrous, orange-brown.2007, Vít Bojňanský, Agáta Fargašová, Atlas of Seeds and Fruits of Central and East-European Flora:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.