a. Also 7 fissel, 8 fissil. [ad. L. fissil-is, f. findĕre to cleave: see -ILE. Cf. Fr. fissile.] Capable of being divided or split; cleavable; inclined or lending to split.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Some are Fissil, as the spectacle stone; others not, as mettals.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 128. It springs slowly through a soft, fissil rock.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol. (1875), II. III. xlviii. 572. Two or three beds of calcareous marl are sometimes observed separated from each other by layers of drift peat, sand or fissile clay.
1857. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, xi. 427. They communicate often a fissile character to the stone in which they occur.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, VI. 180.
| Ash-hewn timbers and fissile oaks with the wedges are rent; | |
| Massive ash-trees roll from the mountains down the descent. |
Hence Fissileness = next.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Fissileness, aptness to be cleaved.
