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Frail vs Former - What's the difference?

frail | former | Related terms |

Frail is a related term of former.


As adjectives the difference between frail and former

is that frail is easily broken; mentally or physically fragile; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life; weak; infirm while former is previous.

As nouns the difference between frail and former

is that frail is a basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and raisins while former is someone who forms something; a maker; a creator or founder.

As a verb frail

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

frail

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Easily broken; mentally or physically fragile; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life; weak; infirm.
  • Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.

    • Related terms

    * fractal * fraction * fractional * fracture * fragile * fragility * frailly * frailness * frailty

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and raisins.
  • The quantity of raisins contained in a frail.
  • A rush for weaving baskets.
  • (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.
  • * 1933 , , , edition 1, Book 2, Chapter XXII:
    • There were five people in the Quirinal bar after dinner, a high-class Italian frail who sat on a stool making persistent conversation against the bartender's bored: “Si ... Si ... Si,” a light, snobbish Egyptian who was lonely but chary of the woman, and the two Americans.
  • * 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, '', published in ''Five Screenplays , ISBN 0-520-05442-4, 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 .
    THE GIRL All right, they'll think I'm your frail .

    References

    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail.

    • Anagrams

    *

    former

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) former, comparative of . Parallel to (m) (via Latin), as comparative form from same Proto-Indo-European root. Related to (m) and (m) (thence (m)), from Proto-Germanic.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Previous.
  • :
  • *
  • *:At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
  • (senseid) First of aforementioned two items. Used with the , often without a noun.
  • :
    • Synonyms
    * (previous) anterior, erstwhile, previous, prior, quondam, ex- * See also
    Antonyms
    * latter

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who forms something; a maker; a creator or founder.
    • Dave was the former of the company.
  • An object used to form something, such as a template, gauge, or cutting die.
    • ''The brick arch was built using a wooden former .
  • (chiefly, British, used in combinations) Someone in, or of, a certain form (class).
    • ''Fifth-former
    Sixth-former .
    Derived terms
    * pan former

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * reform ----