brittle
n.hard and easily broken into many pieces. You use this to describe things that snap or shatter when they are pressed or pulled.
n.susceptible to fracture or shattering upon deformation rather than undergoing plastic strain. Adjective.
“The old plastic becomes brittle and snaps easily.”
“Cold weather makes the metal pipes brittle, increasing the risk of sudden leaks during the winter.”
“Materials science distinguishes between tough substances that absorb impact and brittle ones that fail catastrophically without significant prior deformation when subjected to excessive force.”
“It is stable and difficult to perturb, but brittle when pushed past its limit.”
From Middle English britel, brutel, brotel (“brittle”), from Old English brytel, bryttol (“brittle, fragile”, literally “prone to or tending to break”); equivalent to brit + -le.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.