/frddahk toohrdd"/ , n.
1. Print. German black-letter text, a style of type.
2. ( usually l.c. ) Also, fractur .
a. a stylized, highly decorative watercolor or watercolor-and-ink painting in the Pennsylvania-German tradition, often bearing elaborate calligraphy and standardized motifs, as birds, tulips, mermaids, and unicorns, and typically appearing on a book page, baptismal certificate or other family record, or merchant's advertisement.
b. the elaborate calligraphy used in frakturs.
[ 1900-05, Amer.; fractura action of breaking (in reference to the curlicues that broke up the continuous line of a word). See FRACTURE ]