breakly

English

Etymology

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

Adjective

breakly (comparative more breakly, superlative most breakly)

1. Apt to, capable of, or tending to break; fragile; brittle.
   • 1842, Edmund Ruffin, Farmers' register:

     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.

   • 1889, Charles Lotin Hildreth, The mysterious city of Oo: adventures in Orbello Land:

     Daylight was breakly dimly through wild-looking clouds upon a world of tumultuous waters.

   • 1893, Bessie Chandler, A woman who failed: and others:

     "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. [...]"

Adverb

breakly (comparative more breakly, superlative most breakly)

1. In a breakly manner.
   • 2007, Vít Bojňanský, Agáta Fargašová, Atlas of Seeds and Fruits of Central and East-European Flora:

     Surface longitudinal breakly furrowed, slight lustrous, orange-brown.

Anagrams

• Arkleby, Barkley, bakerly