Things That Are Fragile

Welcome to our list of things that are fragile!

Fragile things are those which can break or shatter easily. They are usually thin, with delicate joints, or made out of a very soft or brittle material. Our list covers objects, animals, food and more, so we hope you find what you’re looking for here!

Here’s a visual list of things that are fragile:

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Hopefully that visual list of fragile things was useful! Here’s a longer and more descriptive list of things that are fragile:

• Silence: Easily broken by any type of noise.
• Snowflake: These are delicate formations of ice crystals.
• Bubble: As soon as part of a bubble becomes dry, it can pop.
• Butterfly Wing: Butterfly wings are extremely thin and delicate and can shed or bend if touched.
• Spiderweb: Very thin structures made of spider silk. While they are flexible and strong for their width and size, to humans they are very easily broken.
• Dragonfly: A small, thin insect with extremely thin, transparent wings.
• Fly: A small, light insect with multi-faceted eyes and transparent wings.
• Bee: Insects that are famous for making honey and for their black and yellow striped bodies. They have thin, delicate legs and transparent wings.
• Pastel: These are very fragile art materials made of pigment held together by a binder. Similar to a brittle chalk.
• Preserved Flowers: Flowers can be preserved either chemically or through drying. Chemically preserved flowers are very soft, and can last a few years with care.
• House of Cards: A common game with playing cards is to build a vertical, self-standing structure. These are notorious for the difficulty in building and the delicacy of the structure.
• Snail Shell: Snail shells are known for being delicate and fragile.
• Wine Glasses: These have long, thin stems and bowls made of thin glass or crystal. They are easy to knock over, imbalance and break.
• Pastry: Baked goods typically made with butter, sugar and egg.
• Tea Leaves: Tea leaves are dried before use, making them brittle and easy to break.
• Icing: When warm, icing (also known as frosting) can melt and collapse easily, and is very soft to the touch. When it’s cooled, it’s still easy to dent and leave marks in.
• Light Bulb: Generally made of thin glass, which is prone to breaking if dropped.
• Dried Seaweed: This is very thin, brittle and crispy. Is typically eaten as a quick snack, or broken up into smaller pieces to use as a topping.
• Dried Leaves: When leaves die and fall off trees, they become fragile and brittle.
• Stockings: These are thin leg coverings that vary in density and thickness. They are notorious for being easy to break and tear.
• Fairy Floss: A type of candy made from spun sugar. Resembles cotton and is very easy to tear, dent and bite into.
• Spun Sugar: This is sugar that has been drawn out into long strands.
• Wafer: A thin, crisp, sweet biscuit.
• Dandelion Puff: Dandelions have seeds that surround the flower in a delicate puff.
• Love Letter Biscuits: These are very thin wafers that have been rolled into a cylinder and are filled with a flavoured icing.
• Fortune Cookie: A type of hollow cookie with a message inside.
• Croissant: A type of flaky pastry with many thin, pliable layers.
• Lindt Balls: A truffle chocolate that consists of a thin shell of solid chocolate housing liquid chocolate.
• Meringue: A sweet dessert typically made from egg whites, but can also be made with chickpea water. Is easily broken in to pieces.
• Filo Pastry: Thin sheet pastry that is commonly used by layering many sheets. Can be sweet or savoury.
• Shortcrust: A sort of buttery pastry with a “short” texture (meaning it’s easily broken down/apart).
• Egg Yolk: Egg yolks have a very fragile membrane keeping their shape.
• Tissue: A thin, soft paper used for wiping up small spills or bodily fluids.
• Flower Petal: Petals are actually modified leaves. They are soft, easily bruised, and easily torn away from the body of the flower.
• Wafer Cone: Cones used to hold ice cream. Made of thin wafer biscuit.
• Paper: A thin material made from wood. Used for writing and drawing on. Easily folded and torn.
• Plates: A flat, usually round surface used for holding non-liquid foods.
• Bowl: A round, domed surface for holding food. Usually made of glass, porcelain, ceramic or other easily breakable materials.
• Avocado: A soft fruit with a large stone which is easily bruised.
• Banana: A soft fruit which is easily bruised and high in potassium.
• Mango: A soft, sweet tropical fruit which is easily bruised.
• Berries: Small, sweet fruits which are soft and easy to damage.
• Cloud: A cluster of visible liquid droplets. Has a nebulous form which is easily broken apart.
• Bouquet: A bunch of flowers arranged in a group designed to mesh nicely with their colours and textures.
• Rice Paper: Rice paper comes in two forms – a thin, translucent edible paper used to wrap foods and a thin, translucent decorative paper.
• Tissue Paper: A lightweight, translucent paper which is used for wrapping and other decorative purposes. 
• Lace: A delicate, ornate fabric made of thin yarn or threads that are woven together in an open web-like figure.
• Cup: A round, domed container used to hold liquids. Commonly made from easily breakable materials like glass, ceramic, china or porcelain (although it comes in plastic varieties too).
• Biscuit: Baked goods that are brittle and easily broken, crumbled or snapped apart.
• Piggy Bank: While many piggy banks are in the form of metal tins or plastic containers, the stereotypical idea of a piggy bank is a porcelain pig that is smashed open when the funds inside are needed.
• Ring: While rings are generally intended for long-term wear, they are fairly fragile items. Their jewels can fall out, they can be bent, dented, scratched, tarnished and discoloured. If they have clasps, the prongs can get caught on things and damage the ring.
• Earring: Since earrings are made of multiple parts (post, end, screw, any jewels) and are so small and delicate, they are easy to break and should be handled with care.
• Necklace: A type of jewelry that is worn around the neck. Generally consists of a thin chain and some sort of pendant.
• Pendant: A decorative piece that hangs on a chain necklace. Usually a carved piece of gold or silver, or some sort of set jewel.
• Bracelet: Bracelets are small, usually thin, delicate and made of many connected parts.
• Bangle: While bangles structurally have more integrity than a bracelet, they are easy to bend out of shape.  
• Anklet: A sort of bracelet which is worn around the ankle instead of the wrist.
• Plants: Plants can be damaged by many things – they can be burnt by sunlight, drowned by too much water, knocked over by careless people or wind, and their leaves and petals are easily bruised, bent and torn.
• Potpurri: These are scented, dried flower petals (usually fragrant flowers like roses or lavender) that are bundled together in cloth and used as a perfume for small areas.
• Teapot: A piece of pottery which is used to brew tea leaves and make tea.
• Teeth: While unpleasant to think about, teeth are easily broken, chipped, cracked or scratched.
• Macaron: These are fragile sweets consisting of two meringue-based cookies sandwiched together.
• Vase: These are containers used to hold fresh flowers (or fake ones). Usually made of glass, ceramic or porcelain.
• Crackers: A flat, thin, baked bisuit which is usually flaky and brittle.
• Frog: Frogs are very soft and have easily squashed bodies. Their skin is also very thin and can be torn if you touch them with dry fingers (so please don’t handle frogs that you see in the wild unless they need help and you have wet hands!)
• Baby: Depending on age, babies can be very delicate as their bones and muscles aren’t yet fully developed.
• Mirror: Mirrors are made of glass, which makes them very delicate.
• Creme Brulee: A sweet dessert with a thin, fragile layer of burnt sugar on top.
• Profiterole: Thin, flaky cream puffs topped with a thin layer of chocolate.
• Canvas Artwork: Depending on the type of paint used, canvas artworks can be brittle nad flaky.
• Croquembouche: A towering cone of profiteroles.
• Lampshade: A cone of fabric which is used to diffuse the harsh light of a lamp into a softer, more tolerable glow.
• Choux Pastry: A type of light pastry dough.
• Flaky Pastry: Also known as blitz pastry or rough puff. A type of pastry that is very light and flaky.
• Puff Pastry: A light pastry made of laminated dough that puffs up when baked.  
• Cake: A sweet baked good that is very soft and spongy.
• Skin: Skin is easily pliable and while unpleasant to think about, is easily scratched, cut, broken and torn.
• Balsa Wood: A very soft type of wood which is commonly used in model-making and architectural projects.
• Peanut Shells: Peanuts have soft, pliable shells.
• Crepe: French-style, thin pancakes.
• Phone Screen: Higher-end phones tend to have screens made of glass, which is easily shattered or cracked when the phone is dropped.
• Trust: Easily broken with a lie or insecurities.
• Ocarina: These are a small instrument similar to a large, oval-shaped whistle. Produces mellow tones and is usually made of ceramic.
• Glass Bottle: While recyclable, these bottles are more fragile than plastic and should be handled with care.
• Jar: Commonly made of either glass or plastic.  
• Tabla: A type of round drum that is played with the fingertips.
• Window: Windows are made of glass and have to be reinforced so they aren’t so easily broken or smashed.
• Pretzel: These are long, thin, baked biscuits formed in a curled shape. Since they are crispy and baked, they are easily snapped and shattered.
• Books: Books are filled with pages of delicate paper that are easy to bend and mark.
• Earphones: Earphones can have long, thin cables which tangle easily and can become detached.
• Cables: Electrical cables and wires, while reinforced and strengthened, can still be easily tangled and come apart from their plugs.  
• Glass: A transparent material used in tableware, windows, lenses and optics.
• Potato Chips: Thinly cut potato chips are very brittle and fragile.
• Eardrum: The eardrum is a thin membrane that keeps the middle ear separate from the external ear. It is very painful when it’s burst or punctured.
• Keyboard: These are a tool for typing out information on a computer. They have many moving parts and electronics within, so can be damaged by dropping them or spilling food or water on them.
• Glasses: These are not actually made of glass, contrary to popular belief – spectacles actually have plastic lenses these days.
• Ceramic: A type of baked clay which is used to make pots, cups, bowls and vases.
• Porcelain: A type of cermamic which is known for its toughness and translucence. Still easy to break.
• Computer Mouse: These days mice use laser tracking rather than a rubber ball. The electronics and multiple parts can make them more fragile than other equipment one might use.
• Pencil: Whether they are wooden or mechanical, the lead in pencils are porous and fragile and prone to breakage on impact.
• Fountain Pen: High-quality fountain pens have nibs made of gold, which is soft and easy to bend or break.
• Peace: States of low or no conflict can be difficult to manage and maintain, especially with a larger group of people.   
• Violin: Violins are made of thin pieces of wood and a bridge that is held largely with gravity and friction. They are a very delicate instrument.
• Umbrella: A device used to keep dry in the rain. Has spindly spokes that bend and invert in winds that are strong enough.
• Guitar: Made of thin pieces of wood, which can warp and flex depending on the temperature and humidity of the area it’s in.
• CDs: A now essentially obsolete way of storing and playing music.
• Ukulele: Looks like a miniature guitar, but with four strings instead of six.  
• Harp: Harps are stringed instruments that are commonly made with a wooden frame.
• Ecosystem: Ecosystems are complex systems that are dependent on and influenced by many variables and subsystems.
• Climate: Climates are difficult to manage and maintain, especially when it’s already in a bad state (like ours).

We hope this list of fragile things was useful and that you found what you needed!

We did our best to cover all of the varied meanings of “fragile” with our visual gallery of fragile things and descriptive list. But if you feel there’s something we missed, please feel free to let us know and leave a comment.

Thank you for visiting Thing Database!