fractured
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frac·ture
(frăk′chər)n.
1.
a. 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.
v. frac·tured, frac·tur·ing, frac·tures
v.tr.
1.
a. To cause to break: The impact of the fall fractured the bone. See Synonyms at break.
b. To undergo a break in (a bone): He fractured his ankle in the fall.
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).
v.intr.
To undergo a fracture.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin frāctūra, from frāctus, past participle of frangere, to break; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
fractured
(ˈfræktʃəd)adj
1. (Medicine) med (of bones or cartilage) broken or torn
2. divided or split into parts
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014