fracture. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

fracture

SYLLABICATION:	frac·ture
PRONUNCIATION:	frkchr
NOUN:	1a. The act or process of breaking. b. The condition of having been broken or ruptured: “a sudden and irreparable fracture of the established order” (W. Bruce Lincoln). 2. A break, rupture, or crack, especially in bone or cartilage. 3. Mineralogy a. The characteristic manner in which a mineral breaks. b. The characteristic appearance of the surface of a broken mineral. 4. Geology A crack or fault in a rock.
VERB:	Inflected forms: frac·tured, frac·tur·ing, frac·tures
TRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To cause to break: fracture a bone. 2. To disrupt or destroy as if by breaking: fractured the delicate balance of power. 3. To abuse or misuse flagrantly, as by violating rules: ignorant writers who fracture the language. 4. Slang To cause to laugh heartily: “Jack Benny fractured audiences . . . for more than 50 years” (Newsweek).
INTRANSITIVE VERB:	To undergo a fracture. See synonyms at break.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English, from Old French, from Latin frctra, from frctus, past participle of frangere, to break. See bhreg- in Appendix I.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.