brittling

Verb

brittle (third-person singular simple present brittles, present participle brittling, simple past and past participle brittled)

1. (intransitive) To become brittle.
   • The project is based on a similar project, the Class project, which was started by the University of Cornell several years ago under the leadership of Stuart Lynn to preserve brittling old books.1999, J. Siekmann, Maria T. Pazienza, J. G. Carbonell, Information Extraction: Towards Scalable, Adaptable Systems, page 24

   Synonyms:

   embrittle

2. (obsolete, transitive) To gut.
   • Not being versed in the terms of English venery, he asked Abbot Ulfketyl what brittling of a deer might mean; and being informed that it was that operation on the carcass of a stag which his countrymen called eventrer, and Highland gillies now “gralloching”[.]1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 38, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson

See all 11 meanings of brittle