Definition of "shatter"

shatter

/ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/

verb
third-person singular simple present shatters, present participle shattering, simple past and past participle shattered
1. (transitive) To violently break something into pieces.
2. (transitive) To destroy or disable something.
3. (intransitive) To smash, or break into tiny pieces.
4. (transitive) To dispirit or emotionally defeat.
  Quotations
  Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.
  1984, Martyn Burke, The commissar's report,, page 36
  A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.
  1992 June 23, Rose Gradym, “Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!”, in Weekly World News, volume 13, number 38, page 41
  The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
  2006, A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution,, page 163
  a man of a loose, volatile, and shatter'd humour
  1687, John Norris, Of Seriousness
5. (intransitive, agriculture) Of seeds: to be dispersed upon ripening.
  Quotations
  Harvesting is done much as with alfalfa, but alsike seed is small and shatters if it is not handled carefully.
  1961, Yearbook of Agriculture, page 175
6. (obsolete) To scatter about.
  Quotations
  Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
  1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646
noun
countable and uncountable, plural shatters
1. (countable, archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
  Quotations
  it will fall upon the glass of the sconce, and break it 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, […], new edition, volume XVI, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801
2. A (pine) needle.
  Quotations
  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) ...
  1834, The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs: Adapted to the Southern Section of the United States, page 421
  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.
  1859, Samuel W. Cole, The New England Farmer, page 277
  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 ..."
  2012, Marguerite Henry, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, Simon and Schuster, page 95
3. (uncountable, slang) A form of concentrated cannabis.

Definition of "shatter"

shatter

verb

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noun

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