English Explanatory Dictionary

shrapnel

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An anti-personnel artillery shell used in World War I which carries a large number of individual bullets or balls close to the target and then ejects them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.
  2. The bullets or balls from the aforementioned type of artillery shell.
  3. Any shot, fragments, or debris thrown out by an exploding shell, bomb, or landmine.
  4. Debris.
  5. Loose change.
name
  1. A surname

Pronunciation

/ˈʃɹæpnəl/ En-au-shrapnel.ogg

Word forms

shrapnel shrapnels

Etymology

From Shrapnel. Named after British army officer Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842) who invented an anti-personnel shell that transported a large number of bullets to the target before releasing them, at a far greater distance than rifles could fire the bullets individually. The surname is likely a metathesized form of Charbonnel, a diminutive of Old French charbon (“charcoal”) in reference to hair color, complexion, or the like.

Derived words

pocket shrapnel scrapnel shrapnel

Translations

Afrikaans: skrapnel Albanian: shrapnel Arabic: شَظَايَا Armenian: շրապնել Armenian: կոտորակառումբ Azerbaijani: şrapnel Belarusian: шрапнэ́ль Bulgarian: шрапне́л Chinese Mandarin: 彈片 /弹片 Czech: šrapnel Dutch: granaatscherven Estonian: šrapnell Finnish: sirpaleet French: shrapnel Galician: metralla Georgian: შრაპნელი German: Schrapnell German: Granatsplitter Greek: θραύσμα Greek: μύδρος Hungarian: repesz Italian: schegge Italian: proiettili Italian: scheggia di bomba Japanese: 榴散弾 Japanese: 榴霰弾 Kazakh: шрапнель Korean: 유산탄 Korean: 류산탄 Kyrgyz: шрапнель Latvian: šrapnelis Lithuanian: šrapnelis Macedonian: шрапнел Malay: serpihan peluru Malay: serpihan bom Māori: matā korara Iranian Persian: تَرْکَش Iranian Persian: تَرْکِش Polish: szrapnel Portuguese: estilhaço Romanian: șrapnel Russian: шрапне́ль Serbo-Croatian: шра̀пнел Serbo-Croatian: šràpnel Slovak: šrapnel Slovene: šrapnel Spanish: shrapnel Spanish: metralla Spanish: esquirlas Swedish: splitter Tajik: шрапнел Thai: สะเก็ด Thai: สะเก็ดระเบิด
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