fracture
UK /ˈfɹæk.t͡ʃʰəː/ · US /ˈfɹæk.t͡ʃɚ/ noun, verb
Forms fractures fracturing fractured
- noun An instance of breaking, a place where something has broken.
- noun (medicine) A break in bone or cartilage.
- noun (geology) A fault or crack in a rock.
- verb (ambitransitive) To break, or cause something to break.
- verb (transitive, slang) To amuse (a person) greatly; to split someone's sides.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English fracture, from Old French fracture, from Latin frāctūra (“a breach, fracture, cleft”), from frangere (“to break”), past participle frāctus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg-, whence also English break. See fraction. Doublet of fraktur.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The act of breaking or snapping asunder; rupture; breach.
- noun The breaking of a bone.
- verb To cause a fracture or fractures in; to break; to burst asunder; to crack; to separate the continuous parts of; as, to fracture a bone; to fracture the skull.
Etymology [L. fractura, fr. frangere, fractum, to break: cf. F. fracture. See Fraction.]
Etymology [Cf. F. fracturer.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fracture”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details