splinter
English
WOTD – 1 February 2009
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsplɪntə(ɹ)/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈsplɪntɚ/, [ˈsplɪɾ̃ɚ]
- (Southern American English) IPA(key): /ˈsplɪnɚ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪntə(r), -ɪntɚ
Etymology 1
From Middle English splinter, from Middle Dutch splinter.
Noun
splinter (plural splinters)
Synonyms
- (long sharp fragment): shard, spelk, spill.
- (group formed by splitting): faction, splinter group.
Translations
fragment of material
|
|
group
Etymology 2
From the noun splinter.
Verb
splinter (third-person singular simple present splinters, present participle splintering, simple past and past participle splintered)
- (intransitive) To come apart into long sharp fragments.
- The tall tree splintered during the storm.
- (transitive) To cause to break apart into long sharp fragments.
- His third kick splintered the door.
- Prescott
- After splintering their lances, they wheeled about, and […] abandoned the field to the enemy.
- (figuratively, of a group) To break, or cause to break, into factions.
- The government splintered when the coalition members could not agree.
- The unpopular new policies splintered the company.
- (transitive) To fasten or confine with splinters, or splints, as a broken limb.
- 1659, Matthew Wren, Monarchy Asserted Or The State of Monarchicall & Popular Government
- it will be very hard for Me to Splinter up the broken confuséd Pieces of it.
- 1659, Matthew Wren, Monarchy Asserted Or The State of Monarchicall & Popular Government
Related terms
Translations
to come apart into splinters
|
to cause to break apart into splinters
|
|
to break or cause to break into factions
to fasten or confine with splints
|
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.