brittlenessn.

1493 Chastysing Goddes Chyldern (de Worde) 95 Thou sholdest know..thyne owne bretilnesse and unmighte to stonde.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. xxxj Remembrynge the brytilnes of your promyse.

a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) i. f. 7 Such a witte, as is quicke without lightnes, sharpe without brittlenes.

1602 W. Basse Three Pastoral Elegies ii. sig. C4 It is as cleere as is the finest glasse, And men would thinke it easie to be broken, But when the violence of intreat wou'd passe, The substance doth no brittlenes betoken.

1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ (1681) viii. §1. 154 The brittleness of the inner stalk.

1711 J. Crull Antiq. St. Peter's 69 The Remnants of a plain decayed Tomb, more by reason of the Brittleness of the Stone, of which it is compos'd, than its Antiquity.

1799 R. Kirwan Geol. Ess. 108 Firmness is that coherence which resists percussion, and its opposite is brittleness, or fragility.

1825 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 115 309 When [the process of mummification was] neglected or slovenly conducted, the mummy resulting from it, would present those appearances of dryness, blackness, and brittleness.

1862 E. M. Goulburn Thoughts Personal Relig. 202 The extreme brittleness and frailty of the human will.

1866 H. E. Roscoe Lessons Elem. Chem. xvii. 148 Hardness, brittleness, and tenacity, are physical properties of great importance.

1941 F. D. Jones & P. B. Schubert Engin. Encycl. II. 1274 The object of tempering, or ‘drawing’, is to reduce the brittleness in hardened steel.

1968 H. O. Mackey & J. P. Mackey Handbk. Dis. Skin (ed. 9) xxxiv. 346 Onychorrhexis is a congenital or acquired brittleness of the nails.

2001 R. W. Cahn Coming of Materials Sci. v. 190 Heat-treatment involving hot or cold work coupled with annealing can lead to benefits in some instances and to catastrophes such as ‘hot shortness’ in others (this term means brittleness at high temperatures).