[ad. OF. fraileté:—L. fragilitāt-em, f. fragilis FRAGILE.]
1. Liability to be crushed or to decay, either in a material or immaterial sense; perishableness, weakness; an instance of this; † also, a frail feature or spot, a flaw. Now rare.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. vii. 28. The lawe ordeynede men prestis hauynge sykenesse, or freelte.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), Prol. 5. Mynde of Man ne may not ben comprehended ne witheholden, for the Freeltee of Mankynde.
1593. Nashe, Four Lett. Confut., 29. Immortall Spencer, no frailtie hath thy fame, but the imputation of this Idiots friendship.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 216. But this once famous Tyrus, is now no other then an heape of ruines; yet have they a reverent respect; and doe instruct the pensive beholder with their exemplary frailtie.
1635. Quarles, Embl., Hierogl., vi.
| Time. Behold the frailty of this slender snuff; | |
| Alas! it hath not long to last. |
1665. Hooke, Microgr., Pref. a b. The like frailties are to be found in the Memory; we often let many things slip away from us, which deserve to be retain’d.
1781. Cowper, Convers., 553.
| The works of man inherit, as is just. | |
| Their author’s frailty, and return to dust. |
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 230. A person may feel conscious of such weakness, and frailty of mind, as to require that all future dispositions made by him, should be attended with such solemnities as may effectually prevent surprise and imposition.
1883. Manch. Exam., 26 Nov., 5/3. The frailty of the vessels which are employed in the lake traffic.
2. Moral weakness; instability of mind; liability to err or yield to temptation.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxi. 2. To shew þe frelte of mannys fleysse.
a. 1400. Prymer (1891), 105. Alle þe synnes þat þey han don bi freelte of worldli lyuynge.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xi. 37 (Harl. MS.). If we synne by sikenesse, or frailte, anoon late vs with shrifte, and contricion, and fulfilling of penaunce, do it away, to haue remission of our synnes.
1538. Starkey, England, I. i. 18. They consydur not the fraylty of man, wych seyng the best folowyth the worst, ouer comme by sensual plesure.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. iii. 100. Is’t Frailty that thus erres?
1661. Cowley, Disc. Govt. O. Cromwell, Verses & Ess. (1669), 57. Sir, it may be you have spoken all this rather to try than to tempt my Frailty.
1725. Watts, Logic, Introd. Something of this Frailty is owing to our very Constitution, Man being compounded of Flesh and Spirit.
1876. C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond., 78. All frailty is taken clean away!
b. A fault arising from infirmity; a ‘weakness.’
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., X. ii. 123.
| I … do confesse I haue | |
| Bene laden with like frailties, which before | |
| Haue often sham’d our Sex. |
1635. Quarles, Embl., III. vi. (1718), 150.
| See not my frailties, Lord, but through my fear, | |
| And look on ev’ry trespass through a tear. |
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Abbe Conti, 19 May. My vanity (the darling frailty of mankind) [is] not a little flattered by the uncommon questions you ask me.
1750. Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard, 125.
| No farther seek his Merits to disclose, | |
| Or draw his Frailties from their dread Abode, | |
| (There they alike in trembling Hope repose) | |
| The Bosom of his Father and his God. |
1877. Mozley, Univ. Serm., vii. 159–60. There is some characteristic frailty at the bottom of every human heart whose hold may have been loosened, but which does not yet move before the influence of grace.
