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* frusto, āre, v. a., to break to pieces: cum Punicae praedae omnibus promontoriis insulisque frustarentur et fluitarent, etc., i. e. the booty taken from the Carthaginians went to wreck and was driven in pieces on the promontories, Flor. 2, 2, 32 (so acc. to the conjecture of Salmasius, Graevius, and others, instead of the common and certainly false reading, frustrarentur. N. Heinsius proposes eructarentur; v. eructo, II.).
frustum, i, n., a piece, bit (syn.: fragmentum, segmentum).
- I. Lit., of food (class.): frusto panis conduci potest, vel uti taceat, vel uti loquatur, Cato ap. Gell. 1, 15, 10: necesse est, offa objecta cadere frustum ex pulli ore cum pascitur, Cic. Div. 1, 15, 27: esculenta, id. Phil. 2, 25 fin. (also ap. Quint. 9, 4, 44): viscera pars in frusta secant, verubusque trementia figunt, Verg. A. 1, 212: lardi semesa frusta, Hor. S. 2, 6, 85: sunt qui frustis et pomis viduas venentur avaras, id. Ep. 1, 1, 78: capreae, Juv. 11, 142: nudum et frusta rogantem, scraps, id. 3, 210: solidae frusta farinae, lumps, id. 5, 68; cf. 14, 128.
- II. Transf., in gen., a piece as a small part of a whole (very rare; not in Cic.): unde soluta fere oratio, et e singulis non membris sed frustis collata, structura caret, Quint. 8, 5, 27; so (opp. membra), id. 4, 5, 25; cf.: philosophiam in partes, non in frusta dividam, Sen. Ep. 89: frusta pannorum, rags, Amm. 15, 12, 2.
Comically: frustum pueri, you bit of a boy! Plaut. Pers. 5, 2, 68.