• (RP) IPA: /ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈʃæt.ɚ/

shatter (shatters, present participle shattering; past and past participle shattered)

1. (transitive) to violently break something into pieces.

   The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.

   a high-pitched voice that could shatter glass

   The old oak tree has been shattered by lightning.

2. (transitive) to destroy or disable something.
3. (intransitive) to smash, or break into tiny pieces.
4. (transitive) to dispirit or emotionally defeat

   to be shattered in intellect; to have shattered hopes, or a shattered constitution

   • 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36

     Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.

   • 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News, Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41

     A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.

   • 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163

     The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.

   • a man of a loose, volatile, and shattered humour

5. (obsolete) To scatter about.
   • 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […] , London: Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moſely,  […], published 1645, OCLC 606951673 ↗:

     Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

• French: fracasser, réduire en miettes, mettre en pièces, briser
• German: zum Zerspringen bringen, zerschmettern, zersplittern
• Italian: fracassare, spaccare, sconquassare, frantumare
• Portuguese: estilhaçar
• Russian: разбива́ть
• Spanish: astillar, estrellar, quebrantar, hacer añicos

• French: éclater, voler en éclats
• German: zerspringen
• Italian: andare in frantumi, sbriciolarsi
• Portuguese: estilhaçar
• Russian: разбива́ться
• Spanish: astillar, estrellar, hacer añicos

shatter

1. (countable, archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.

   to break a glass into shatters

2. A (pine) needle.

   Synonyms: shat (Maryland, Delaware)

   • 1834, The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs: Adapted to the Southern Section of the United States, page 421:

     My usual habit is, as soon as I get my wheat trodden out, and my corn secured in the fall, to litter my farm yard (and if my cultivation is far off, I select some warm spot near the field) with leaves and pine shatters, (preferring the former) ...

   • 1859, Samuel W. Cole, The New England Farmer, page 277:

     They are preserved in cellars, or out of doors in kilns. The method of fixing them is to raise the ground a few inches, where they are to be placed, and cover with pine shatters to the depth of six inches or more.

   • 2012, Marguerite Henry, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 9781442488045), page 95:

     Grandpa snapped his fingers. "Consarn it all!" he sputtered. "I plumb forgot the pine shatters. Paul and Maureen, you gather some nice smelly pine shatters from off 'n the floor of the woods. Nothin' makes a better cushion for pony feet as pine shatters ..."

3. (uncountable, slang) A form of concentrated cannabis.

• German: Splitter, Stückchen

• German: Nadel, Kiefernnadel