Definition

1. Verb:
   • To make brittle: The process of causing a material to become brittle, meaning it loses its ductility and becomes prone to fracture or cracking under stress. This often refers to a physical or chemical change in the properties of a substance.

Usage

• The verb embrittle is typically used in technical, scientific, or industrial contexts, such as materials science, metallurgy, and engineering. It describes an action that results in a loss of toughness.
• It is often used in the passive voice (e.g., "become embrittled") to describe the state of the material.

Examples

• Verb:
  • Exposure to hydrogen can embrittle certain high-strength steels, leading to catastrophic failure.
  • The plastic was embrittled by prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun.
  • Aging at high temperatures can embrittle the alloy, making it unsuitable for its original application.

Advanced Usage

• "to become embrittled": This is a common passive construction describing the resulting state of the material.
  • The old rubber seals had become embrittled with age and crumbled to the touch.

Variants and Related Words

• Embrittlement (n): The process or result of becoming brittle. This is the noun form.
  • Hydrogen embrittlement is a significant concern in pipeline engineering.
• Brittle (adj): The property of being hard but liable to break or shatter easily. This is the root adjective.
  • The brittle branches snapped in the strong wind.

Synonyms

• Weaken (in the specific context of reducing toughness)
• Degrade (in the specific context of material properties)

Antonyms

• Toughen
• Strengthen (in the context of increasing ductility)

Verb

1. make brittle