from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. The act or process of breaking.
- n. The condition of having been broken or ruptured: "a sudden and irreparable fracture of the established order” ( W. Bruce Lincoln).
- n. A break, rupture, or crack, especially in bone or cartilage.
- n. Mineralogy The characteristic manner in which a mineral breaks.
- n. Mineralogy The characteristic appearance of the surface of a broken mineral.
- n. Geology A crack or fault in a rock.
- transitive v. To cause to break: The impact fractured a bone.
- transitive v. To undergo a break in (a bone): He fractured his ankle in the fall.
- transitive v. To disrupt or destroy as if by breaking: fractured the delicate balance of power.
- transitive v. To abuse or misuse flagrantly, as by violating rules: ignorant writers who fracture the language.
- transitive v. Slang To cause to laugh heartily: "Jack Benny fractured audiences . . . for more than 50 years” ( Newsweek).
- intransitive v. To undergo a fracture. See Synonyms at break.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. the act of breaking, or something that has broken, especially that in bone or cartilage
- n. a fault or crack in a rock
- v. to break, or cause something to break
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The act of breaking or snapping asunder; rupture; breach.
- n. The breaking of a bone.
- n. The texture of a freshly broken surface
- transitive v. To cause a fracture or fractures in; to break; to burst asunder; to crack; to separate the continuous parts of
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A breaking or a break; especially, a partial or total separation of parts of a continuous solid body under the action of a force; specifically, in surgery, the breaking of a bone.
- n. A broken surface, with reference to texture or configuration, or to manner of breaking; specifically, in mineralogy, the characteristic breakage of a substance, or appearance presented on a surface other than that of cleavage: as, a compact fracture; a fibrous fracture; foliated, striated, or conchoidal fracture, etc.
- n. Forcible separation or disunion; quarreling.
- To break; cause a fracture in; crack: as, to fracture a bone or the skull.
- Synonyms Cleave, Split, etc. See rend, and fracture, n.
- To break; undergo fracture.
- n. In phonology, same as breaking, 2.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. break into pieces
- n. breaking of hard tissue such as bone
- v. become fractured
- v. fracture a bone of
- v. violate or abuse
- n. the act of cracking something
- v. interrupt, break, or destroy
- v. break (a bone)
- n. (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other
If, therefore, the part which is depressed -- that is, the part directly struck -- happens to be less elastic than the part which bulges, it gives way, and a fracture by "bending" results; but if the bulging part is the less elastic, it bursts outwards -- _fracture by_
From the frequency with which this fracture occurs while cranking a motor-car, it is conveniently described as _Chauffeur's fracture_; we have observed in doctors, who have sustained this fracture in their own persons, that they were under the impression that they had sustained a trivial sprain of the wrist.
If the limits of its elasticity are not exceeded, the bone recoils into its normal position when the force ceases to act; but if the bone is bent beyond the point from which it can recoil, a fracture takes place -- "_fracture by bending_."
-- The term fracture is derived from a Greek word which signifies "to break," and is employed to convey the idea of a division, by violence, of bone or cartilage.
"No, not ill, though the fracture is a very painful and inconvenient one."
Watching the GOP fracture is becoming a favorite pasttime of mine.
Without a strong leader factionalisation and fracture is often the result.
And for your information Since you decided to be personal the accident i was in fracture 4 vertabrae in my back and left me physically unable to perform the duties the job would entail seeing as it took me 2 years to learn to walk again ...
He'll have another diagnostic test to see if the fracture is completely gone before he is given clearance.
“Whether this is a longer term fracture or something that owes to Barack Obama is not yet clear.”