frail

adjective

Older Slang: Sometimes Offensive: a term used to refer to a girl or woman
a flexible basket made of rushes, used especially for dried fruits, as dates, figs, or raisins
a certain quantity of raisins, about 75 pounds (34 kilograms), contained in such a basket

Pronunciation: /fɹeɪl/

Etymology: From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.
“Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life is fraile, and we may dye to day.”
“Its nest is composed of the frailest materials, and is light and small in proportion to the size of the bird”
Weak; infirm.
“Frail smoke of morning in the air and a sort of muffled hum that is not sound but is not silence either.”
“O as the soft and frail lights break upon your eyelids”
In an infirm state leading one to be easily subject to disease or other health problems, especially regarding the elderly.
Mentally fragile.
Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.

Synonym of flail.
“The scythe, the sickle and the flail (or "frail", is it is invariably called) - these should surely be incorporated in the county arms, for on their use much of the prosperity of Essex has always rested until now.”

Etymology: From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

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