What's the difference between brittle and stiff?

Brittle


Definition:

  • (a.) Easily broken; apt to break; fragile; not tough or tenacious.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This method ensures the good preservation of spatial relations between bone elements essential for studies of fossil bones, which are sometimes very brittle.
  • (2) Ultrastructural studies of Aeromonas hydrophila strain AH26 revealed two distinctive pilus types: "straight" pili appear as brittle, rod-like filaments, whereas "flexible" pili are supple and curvilinear.
  • (3) Three sibs, a boy and two girls, born to Moroccan consanguineous parents, were affected with a syndrome characterized by brittle hair, mental retardation, short stature, ataxia, and gonadal dysfunction.
  • (4) In this prospective study the incidence and severity of hypoglycaemia were evaluated in 10 type I brittle diabetic patients under conventional treatment (period A), then under chronic treatment with CSII for at least 1 year (period B: the first 3 months; period C: the last 3 months).
  • (5) Only few reports exist about the occurrence of brittle nails.
  • (6) Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by brittle hair with reduced sulfur content, ichthyosis, peculiar face, and mental and physical retardation.
  • (7) The hooves of biotin-deficient swine are weak, brittle, and often necrotic.
  • (8) The coterie around the prime minister brought their conflict addiction, their brittle tribalism and their self-reinforcing insularity into government.
  • (9) Nigeria's oil pipelines are battleground for brittle democracy Read more In addition Nigeria’s ethnic, geographic, and religious differences can prove explosive, and it’s unlikely that Buhari – a Muslim from northern Nigeria – will treat the southern Christian Niger Delta militants differently to the Islamic Boko Haram , who this week declared their allegiance to Isis.
  • (10) We present a young man with Mediterranean type glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus whose brittle course was characterized by recurrent bouts of hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).
  • (11) Saudi Arabia had been vehemently opposed to Aoun’s nomination, fearing he will consolidate Iran’s influence on the brittle state, which has remained vulnerable state since the end of its destructive civil war 25 years ago.
  • (12) The glycemic control of 11 brittle diabetics is improved during the 5 days after a 24 hour connection with the AEP.
  • (13) One patient with brittle juvenile-onset diabetes had successful control before, during, and after cesarean section.
  • (14) Holland are favourites, primarily because of their inventive forward players – with Wesley Scheijder in refulgent form and brittle Arjen Robben and Robin Van Persie set to make a record two consecutive starts, the Uruguayan defence will surely be stretched ….
  • (15) Detection of low-sulfur brittle hair syndrome is also important for genetic counseling because the disease appears to be inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern.
  • (16) The tricho-rhino-phalangeal syndrome (TRPS) is a rare congenital disorder, characterized by (1) a peculiar and somewhat pear-shaped nose, (2) sparse and brittle scalp hair, and (3) radiographic evidence of cone-shaped epiphyses of the hands.
  • (17) No problems related to stent migration or brittleness have been encountered.
  • (18) This decrease in the SRS index has been explained in terms of the relative amounts of strain-hardened material produced as milling severity increased, resulting in an increasing resistance to deformation and thus an apparent increase in brittle behaviour as particle size decreased.
  • (19) Osteogenesis imperfecta (OGI) is a rare genetic disease which, as a result of a disorder in the formation of the organic stroma of the bone due to a defect in osteogenic function, induces brittle bones, whereby only weak forces bring about multiple, repeated pathological fractures.
  • (20) He is never going to outdo José Mourinho when it comes to confrontation, brittle one-liners and media positioning – the Chelsea manager is simply too well-practised – but his team reminded everyone here why they are such formidable opponents, and that is always the best way to win these arguments.

Stiff


Definition:

  • (superl.) Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints.
  • (superl.) Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; neither soft nor hard; as, the paste is stiff.
  • (superl.) Firm; strong; violent; difficult to oppose; as, a stiff gale or breeze.
  • (superl.) Not easily subdued; unyielding; stubborn; obstinate; pertinacious; as, a stiff adversary.
  • (superl.) Not natural and easy; formal; constrained; affected; starched; as, stiff behavior; a stiff style.
  • (superl.) Harsh; disagreeable; severe; hard to bear.
  • (superl.) Bearing a press of canvas without careening much; as, a stiff vessel; -- opposed to crank.
  • (superl.) Very large, strong, or costly; powerful; as, a stiff charge; a stiff price.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) If you turn the bowl upside down, the whites should be stiff enough not to fall out.
  • (2) The stiffness of the fibre first rose abruptly in response to stretch and then started to decrease linearly while the stretch went on; after the completion of stretch the stiffness decreased towards a steady value which was equal to that during the isometric tetanus at the same sarcomere length, indicating that the enhancement of isometric force is associated with decreased stiffness.
  • (3) Current methodology for the in vitro determination of aortic and large artery stiffness is reviewed and involves three approaches: (1) the estimation of distensibility by pulse wave velocity measurement; (2) the estimation of distensibility from the fractional diameter change of a given arterial segment by imaging techniques (e.g., angiography, Doppler ultrasound) against pressure change; (3) the estimation of compliance by determining volume change against pressure change in the arterial system during diastolic runoff from the Windkessel model of the circulation.
  • (4) The maintenance of adequate blood circulation requires a sufficient ventricular contractility; in addition, to eject blood, the ventricles must first receive a sufficient volume, requiring a low diastolic stiffness.
  • (5) Stiffness was reduced in approximate proportion to the ramp stretch rate, and the reduction was confined largely to the elastic component.
  • (6) Proof stress, ultimate tensile strength, elongation, and plastic stiffness have been measured and results compared by use of analyses of variance.
  • (7) In other words, the stiffness of these areas was low and the recovery from deformation was fast.
  • (8) But the same court also just refused to hear an appeal of a Minnesota woman who's been ordered to pay more than $220,000 for downloading two-dozen songs – a testament to Congress' gift to Hollywood and its allies in the form of absurdly stiff penalties for minor infringement.
  • (9) The tension-length relation for the unstimulated (passive) cell is also linear between 1r and the elastic limit, but is displaced from the active tension-length curve and is of reduced stiffness.
  • (10) Bilaterals in summit seasons can be stiff exchanges, where digressions can carry risks: not enough said, too much said.
  • (11) We measured the stiffness of comparable configurations (1 or 2 bars) under axial compression, four-point-bending in two planes, and torsion.
  • (12) Tiny, tiny... rodents – some soft and grey, some brown with black stripes, in paintings, posters, wallcharts, thumb-tacked magazine clippings and poorly executed crayon drawings, hurling themselves fatally in their thousands over the cliff of their island home; or crudely taxidermied and mounted, eyes glazed and little paws frozen stiff – on every available surface.
  • (13) The bone stiffness also correlates strongly with the geometry (area) and slightly with bone mass; however, an unexpectedly low correlation was found between stiffness and density.
  • (14) Finally, fibrosis may paradoxically reduce passive stiffness if it leads to a thinning of the interventricular septum.
  • (15) A young male nephrotic patient, who was given small doses of clofibrate for hyperlipaemia, developed muscle pain, stiffness and very high serum levels of muscle enzymes.
  • (16) Impaired left ventricular stiffness may be an additional criterion for using corinfar in patients with coronary heart disease.
  • (17) The increase of elastic fibres following denervation and reinnervation represents an obviously meaningful reaction that may compensate for loss of tonic properties of muscle spindles without causing stiffness.
  • (18) Only the bone-patellar tendon-bone unit had maximum force and stiffness greater than that of the ACL.
  • (19) The initial stiffness is poorly described by material or catheter gauge.
  • (20) The stiffness tester and torque meter were found to yield nearly the same measurements of bending deformation for orthodontic wires as small as .007 inch diameter, provided the different bending apparatus are calibrated to each other.