flinders

¹ American  

[flin-derz] / ˈflɪn dərz /

plural noun

1. splinters; small pieces or fragments.

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Flinders ² American  

[flin-derz] / ˈflɪn dərz /

noun

1. Matthew, 1774–1814, English navigator and explorer: surveyed coast of Australia.

2. a river in NE Australia, flowing NW to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 520 miles (837 km) long.

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flinders British  

/ ˈflɪndəz /

plural noun

1. rare small fragments or splinters (esp in the phrase fly into flinders )

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Etymology

Origin of flinders

1400–50; late Middle English flendris, perhaps < Scandinavian; compare Norwegian flindra splinter; perhaps akin to flint

Example Sentences

He’s been at it since “Independence Day” in 1996 when aliens blasted the White House to flinders.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 4, 2022

A stack of old Washington Post stories on the District’s street nomenclature had been reduced to flinders.

From Washington Post

Fishing craft were splintered, fishermen's shacks blown to flinders.

From Time Magazine Archive

Now, with their summer homes smashed to flinders, with even their beach, real estate so devastated that many an owner thought of letting it go in default of taxes, this opposition was silenced.

From Time Magazine Archive

The infinite threatened to make all motion impossible, while the void threatened to smash the nutshell universe into a thousand flinders.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife