shatter

Meaning

Verb

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.
5. (intransitive) Of seeds: to disperse (become dispersed) upon ripening.
6. (obsolete, transitive) To scatter about.
7. (intransitive) To fall sometimes connoting hard, as if to smash something, other times light and dispersed.

Noun

1. (archaic, countable) A fragment of anything shattered.
2. (countable, uncountable) A (pine) needle.
3. (countable, uncountable) A scattering, a smattering; a quantity of something scattered, like a sprinkling of seeds or a shower of rain.
4. (slang, uncountable) A form of concentrated cannabis.

Synonyms

smash

break

crush

splinter

destroy

split

crack

disrupt

break to pieces

break into pieces

demolish

break up

fragment

damage

dash

💨

ruin

burst

wreck

sliver

smash into pieces

break off

breach

fracture

weaken

crumble

undermine

sprinkle

upset

crack open

spatter

dispel

disintegrate

rupture

shiver

beat

impair

spoil

stave in

break down

spray

stave

tear down

defeat

decompose

decipher

broken

gap

fritter

cut up

cut

Translations

briser

zerschmettern

verbrijzelen

vermorzelen

fracasser

zertrümmern

zerschlagen

casser

intrappen

destrozar

verpletteren

quebrantar

estrellar

estilhaçar

fracassare

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: schateren

Cognate with Middle English: scateren

Inherited from Old English: scaterian

Cognate with Dutch: schateren

Cognate with Low German: schateren

Cognate with Albanian: shkatërroj

In summary

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.