shatter
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈʃæt.ɚ/
rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)
Forms: form: shatters
form: shattering
form: shattered
form: 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.
Senses: examples: text: The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.
text: a high-pitched voice that could shatter glass
text: The old oak tree has been shattered by lightning.
glosses: To violently break something into pieces.
glosses: To destroy or disable something.
glosses: To smash, or break into tiny pieces.
examples: text: to be shattered in intellect
text: to have shattered hopes
text: to have a shattered constitution
text: a man of a loose, volatile, and shatter'd humour
ref: 1687, John Norris, Of Seriousness:
text: Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.
ref: 1984, Martyn Burke, The commissar's report,, page 36:
text: A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.
ref: 1992 June 23, Rose Gradym, “Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!”, in Weekly World News, volume 13, number 38, page 41:
text: I don't mean to shatter your ego, but this ain't the first time I've had gun pointed at me.
ref: 1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Jules (Samuel L. Jackson):
text: The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
ref: 2006, A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution,, page 163:
glosses: To dispirit or emotionally defeat.
examples: text: Harvesting is done much as with alfalfa, but alsike seed is small and shatters if it is not handled carefully.
ref: 1961, Yearbook of Agriculture, page 175:
topics: agriculture
business
lifestyle
glosses: Of seeds: to disperse (become dispersed) upon ripening.
examples: text: Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
ref: 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:
glosses: To scatter about.
examples: text: Bulletlike rain shattered down. Instantly, Willy was soaked to the skin. Then her right foot skidded out before her, and she felt her balance begin to go. Inevitably and with shocking swiftness came the moment when her body obeyed gravity[…]
ref: 2006 March 28, Peter Straub, In the Night Room: A Novel, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 190:
text: The heavens opened up, and the rain shattered down. She trailed a finger down the window, following drops of water as they splashed and wept down the pane.
ref: 2008 April 29, Shana Abé, The Last Mermaid: A Novel, Bantam, →ISBN:
text: He learned forward […] and the sleeting rain shattered down like diamonds from the brim of his hat.
ref: 2015 July 7, Devon Monk, Cold Copper, Penguin, →ISBN, page 36:
text: ... rain shattered down on the pub windows,[…]
ref: 2022 May 28, Ian Hey, No Lift and No Stairs, Book Guild Publishing, →ISBN:
glosses: To fall sometimes connoting hard, as if to smash something, other times light and dispersed.
raw_tags: of rain
Synonyms: shiver
Derived terms: ear-shattering
earthshattering
earth-shattering
heart-shattering
shatter the ice