English Explanatory Dictionary

shatter

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To violently break something into pieces.
  2. To destroy or disable something.
  3. To smash, or break into tiny pieces.
  4. To dispirit or emotionally defeat.
  5. Of seeds: to disperse (become dispersed) upon ripening.
  6. To scatter about.
  7. To fall sometimes connoting hard, as if to smash something, other times light and dispersed.
noun
  1. A fragment of anything shattered.
  2. A (pine) needle.
  3. A scattering, a smattering; a quantity of something scattered, like a sprinkling of seeds or a shower of rain.
  4. A form of concentrated cannabis.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/ /ˈʃæt.ɚ/ en-us-shatter.ogg

Word forms

shatter shatters shattering shattered

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”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Cognate with Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”), Low German schateren, Albanian shkatërroj (“to destroy, devastate”). Doublet of scatter.

Synonyms

shiver shat

Derived words

antishatter ear-shattering earthshattering earth-shattering heart-shattering nonshatter shatterable shatter attack shatterbox shatterbrained shattercane shatter cone shatterer shatterpated shatterproof shatter the ice shattery unshatter
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