Also 6 fractour. [a. Fr. fracture, ad. L. fractūra, f. fract- ppl. stem of frangĕre to break.]
1. The action of breaking or fact of being broken; breakage; spec. in Surg. (the earliest use), the breaking of a bone, cartilage, etc.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terapeutyke, 2 B j. Ye must begyn the lygature at the vlcerate party, in ledynge it towarde the hole partye, as Hyppocrates wylleth in the fractour of bones.
1677. Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, I. i. 38 Without any great fracture of the more stable and fixed parts of Nature.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xiv. (1840), 241. The shock of the air, which the fracture in the clouds made, was such, that our ship shook as when a broadside is fired.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., iv. (ed. 3), 33. A person may skate with great rapidity over ice which would not support his weight if he moved over it more slowly. This arises from the fact, that time is requisite for producing the fracture of the ice.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg. (1879), II. 39. Fracture of the sterno-costal cartilages is a rare accident.
fig. 1842. Ld. Cockburn, Jrnl., I. 315. Preparations have begun to be made for that fracture of the Church.
2. The result of breaking; a crack, division, split; † a broken part, a splinter.
1641. ‘Smectymnuus,’ Answ., § 18 (1653), 71. Their Fractures were so many, they knew not which Religion to chuse if they should turne Christians.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Holy Dying, iv. § 8 (1727), 177. Let the sick man set his house in order before he die; state his cases of conscience, reconcile the fractures of his family.
1654. Gayton, Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot, I. v. 16. Besides, the losse of his Launce, though it stuck emblematically on his sides, yet the fractures went to his heart.
1798. W. Clubbe, Omnium, 33. He got off his box, and went to splicing the fractures [of the harness].
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, V. vi.
| O’er chasms he pass’d, where fractures wide | |
| Craved wary eye and ample stride. |
1832. De la Beche, A Geological Manual (ed. 2), 29. Often, however, no appearances of fracture are visible in the hills, though these are traversed by faults in various directions.
1876. J. S. Brewer, Eng. Stud., ii. (1881), 77–8. They admitted no such fracture in the chain of our political existence.
b. Surg. For comminuted, compound, simple fracture, see those words.
1525. trans. Brunswick’s Surg., G iiij. If the fracture be lytell it shall be cured like ye contusyon aforesayd.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 306/2. Neither is it goode you should winde the woundes to hard or stiffely, whether it be a wounde, or a Fracture.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Repentance, vi. Fractures well cur’d make us more strong.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 161. Fractures of the Nose, Cheek-bones … fasten again in twenty or twenty-four days.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 593. There is, in most country villages, some person who pretends to the art of reducing fractures.
1835–6. R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 443/1 In one [bone] the fracture had not united.
1843. Bethune, Sc. Fireside Stor., 11–2. The fracture was a simple one, the bone was soon set, bandages, &c. applied.
fig. 1859. J. G. Holland, Gold-foil, vi. 98. Old fractures of character that refuse to unite, and make you shudder at your own weakness.
3. The characteristic appearance of the fresh surface in a mineral, when broken irregularly by the blow of a hammer. More fully, surface of fracture.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 453. That of Carara [marble] is the purest we are acquainted with; it is of a granular texture, and sparkling in its fracture like sugar.
1812–6. J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, I. 2. Pig iron is of very different qualities, that which is called No. 1, and the fracture of which is of a dark colour, runs so fluid as to be admirably suited for grates, and ornamental work.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., I. iii. 47. A narrow line of fire is then kindled, and maintained till the rock below is thoroughly heated, immediately on which a line of men and women, each provided with a pot full of cold water, suddenly sweep off the ashes, and pour the water into the heated groove, when the rock at once splits with a clean fracture.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xii. 101. The two surfaces of fracture were absolutely black; and the blackness appeared, at first sight, to be owing to a thin film of opaque matter which had insinuated itself into the crevice.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., iii. 65. It breaks with a resinous fracture.
† 4. = FRACTION 5. Obs.–1
1674. Jeake, A Compleat Body of Arithmetick (1696), 230. Forasmuch as alwayes an whole Year, Moneth or Day, &c. is not the subject of the Question, neither the moving of the Cœlestial Bodies to be alwayes measured by whole Circles, Signs, Degrees, &c. but sometimes Parts or Fractures of the whole are useful.
5. Phonology. The euphonic substitution of a diphthong for a simple vowel, owing to the influence of a following consonant (in OE. h, l, r); the diphthong so produced.
1891. A. L. Mayhew, O. E. Phonol., § 81. Short eo corresponds to Germ e, as the result of fracture before final h. Ibid., § 84. eo=io the fracture of Germ. i before h+cons.
6. attrib. and Comb., as fracture-bed, -bedstead; fracture-surface (= sense 3).
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 102/1. *Fracture Beds. Ibid., 102/2. *Fracture Bedstead.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 135. The *fracture-surfaces or planes thus exposed, are either parallel with all the planes of the crystal, or they are not.
