Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Peter Mark Roget

327} brittleness &c adj.; fragility, friability, frangibility, fissibility†; house of cards, house of glass. V. be brittle &c adj.; live in a glass house. break, crack, snap, split, shiver, splinter, crumble, break short, burst, fly, give way; fall to pieces; crumble to, crumble into dust. Adj. brittle, brash [U.S.], breakable, weak, frangible, fragile, frail, gimcrack†, shivery, fissile; splitting &c v.; lacerable†, splintery, crisp, crimp, short, brittle as glass.