shatter
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English schateren (“to scatter, dash”), an assibilated form of Middle English scateren ("to scatter"; see scatter), from Old English *scaterian (possibly attested as Old English *sċeacerian in tōsċeacerian (“to waste, devastate, scatter”), from Proto-Germanic *skat- (“to smash, scatter”). Cognate with Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”), Low German schateren, Albanian shkatërroj (“to destroy, devastate”).
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
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.
- Norris
- a man of a loose, volatile, and shattered humour
- (obsolete) To scatter about.
- Milton
- Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
- Milton
TranslationsEdit
to violently break something into pieces
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to smash, or break into tiny pieces
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NounEdit
shatter (plural shatters)
- (archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
- to break a glass into shatters
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Jonathan Swift to this entry?)