shatter
See also: Shatter
English
Etymology
From Middle English schateren (“to scatter, dash”), an assibilated form of Middle English scateren ("to scatter"; see scatter), from Old English scaterian, from Proto-Germanic *skat- (“to smash, scatter”). Cognate with Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”), Low German schateren, Albanian shkatërroj (“to destroy, devastate”). Doublet of scatter.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈʃæt.ɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: shat‧ter
Verb
A lightglobe shatters after it is shot with a pistol
shatter (third-person singular simple present shatters, present participle shattering, simple past and past participle shattered)
- (transitive) To violently break something into pieces.
- The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.
- a high-pitched voice that could shatter glass
- The old oak tree has been shattered by lightning.
- (transitive) To destroy or disable something.
- (intransitive) To smash, or break into tiny pieces.
- (transitive) To dispirit or emotionally defeat.
- to be shattered in intellect; to have shattered hopes, or a shattered constitution
- 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36
- Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.
- 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News, Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41
- A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.
- 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163
- The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
- 1687, Of Seriousness:
- a man of a loose, volatile, and shatter'd humour
- (obsolete) To scatter about.
- 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, OCLC 606951673:
- Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
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Translations
to violently break something into pieces
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to smash, or break into tiny pieces
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Noun
shatter (countable and uncountable, plural shatters)
- (countable, archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
- to break a glass into shatters
- 1731 (date written, published 1745), Jonathan Swift, “Directions to Servants”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], volume XVI, new edition, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, OCLC 1184656746:
- it will fall upon the glass of the sconce, and break it into shatters
- A (pine) needle.
- Synonym: shat (Maryland, Delaware)
- 1834, The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs: Adapted to the Southern Section of the United States, page 421:
- My usual habit is, as soon as I get my wheat trodden out, and my corn secured in the fall, to litter my farm yard (and if my cultivation is far off, I select some warm spot near the field) with leaves and pine shatters, (preferring the former) ...
- 1859, Samuel W. Cole, The New England Farmer, page 277:
- They are preserved in cellars, or out of doors in kilns. The method of fixing them is to raise the ground a few inches, where they are to be placed, and cover with pine shatters to the depth of six inches or more.
- 2012, Marguerite Henry, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 95:
- Grandpa snapped his fingers. "Consarn it all!" he sputtered. "I plumb forgot the pine shatters. Paul and Maureen, you gather some nice smelly pine shatters from off 'n the floor of the woods. Nothin' makes a better cushion for pony feet as pine shatters ..."
- (uncountable, slang) A form of concentrated cannabis.
Translations
a fragment of anything shattered
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a (pine) needle
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Derived terms
- shatter attack
- shattercane
- shatter cone, shattercone
Anagrams
- Hatters, Threats, hatters, stareth, threats