brittle vs lithe

brittle

adj
  • Not physically tough or tenacious; apt to break or crumble when bending. 

  • Poorly error- or fault-tolerant; having little in the way of redundancy or defense in depth; susceptible to catastrophic failure in the event of a relatively-minor malfunction or deviance. 

  • Diabetes that is characterized by dramatic swings in blood sugar level. 

  • Said of rocks and minerals with a conchoidal fracture; capable of being knapped or flaked. 

  • Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact. 

  • Emotionally fragile, easily offended. 

noun
  • A confection of caramelized sugar and nuts. 

  • Anything resembling this confection, such as flapjack, a cereal bar, etc. 

verb
  • To become brittle. 

lithe

adj
  • Capable of being easily bent; flexible. 

  • Adaptable. 

  • Slim but not skinny. 

noun
  • Shelter. 

verb
  • To listen to, hearken to. 

How often have the words brittle and lithe occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )