a. Also 7–8 fryable. [a. F. friable, ad. L. friābilis, f. friāre to crumble into small pieces.] Capable of being easily crumbled or reduced to powder; pulverizable, crumbly.
1563. T. Gale, Treat. Gonneshot, 2. The spume of Nitre is Judged best, which is most lyghte, fryable, in colour almoste Purple.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, Pref. 17. Stone Walls, of matter moldring and friable, have stood two or three thousand years.
1684–5. Boyle, Min. Waters, 48. Some idoneous Powders, especially that of vitriol (whereof for this purpose English seem’d the best) lightly calcin’d in a gentle heat till it became of a grayish colour and friable between the Fingers.
1793. G. White, Selborne, iv. (1853), 21. Balls of a friable substance like rust of iron called rust balls.
1845. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., I. 288. The clot is soft, friable, of a very dark, almost black red colour, and is very rarely covered with a buffy coat.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Farming, Wks. (Bohn), III. 61. They [tiles] drain the land, make it sweet and friable; have made English Chat Moss a garden, and will now do as much for the Dismal Swamp.
Hence Friableness.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual. (ed. 2), 317. In Vitriol the friableness, transparency, and aptness to mingle with water, need not be attributed to the compositum as such, but may, for aught we know, be due to the saline corpuscles.
1853. Johnston, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XIII. I. 21. The Onondaga salt group is especially conspicuous for the natural fertility and friableness of its soils, and for the ease with which they can be worked and cultivated.
