Definition of "fracture" []

• The act or process of breaking. (noun)
• The condition of having been broken or ruptured: "a sudden and irreparable fracture of the established order” ( W. Bruce Lincoln). (noun)
• A break, rupture, or crack, especially in bone or cartilage. (noun)
• Mineralogy The characteristic manner in which a mineral breaks. (noun)
• Mineralogy The characteristic appearance of the surface of a broken mineral. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "If, therefore, the part which is depressed -- that is, the part directly struck -- happens to be less elastic than the part which bulges, it gives way, and a fracture by "bending" results; but if the bulging part is the less elastic, it bursts outwards -- _fracture by_"
• "From the frequency with which this fracture occurs while cranking a motor-car, it is conveniently described as _Chauffeur's fracture_; we have observed in doctors, who have sustained this fracture in their own persons, that they were under the impression that they had sustained a trivial sprain of the wrist."
• "If the limits of its elasticity are not exceeded, the bone recoils into its normal position when the force ceases to act; but if the bone is bent beyond the point from which it can recoil, a fracture takes place -- "_fracture by bending_.""