shatter
Americanverb (used with object)
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to break (something) into pieces, as by a blow.
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to damage, as by breaking or crushing.
ships shattered by storms.
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to impair or destroy (health, nerves, etc.).
The incident shattered his composure.
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to weaken, destroy, or refute (ideas, opinions, etc.).
He wanted to shatter her illusions.
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
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to break or be broken into many small pieces
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(tr) to impair or destroy
his nerves were shattered by the torture
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(tr) to dumbfound or thoroughly upset
she was shattered by the news
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informal (tr) to cause to be tired out or exhausted
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an obsolete word for scatter
noun
Related Words
See break.
Other Word Forms
- nonshatter noun
- nonshattering adjective
- shatterer noun
- shattering adjective
- shatteringly adverb
- unshattered adjective
Etymology
Origin of shatter
1300–50; Middle English schateren < ?; scatter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Frank looks shattered," former Newcastle and Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given told BBC Radio 5 Live.
From BBC
The integrity of the armed forces has been shattered.
Bundy and the mayor led a driving tour of the shattered coastline, stopping at one property where the destruction of a home revealed a sea wall below with a pre-existing sinkhole.
Those conversations shattered the "prejudice" she carried, an ignorance that "reduces a person entirely to their wound".
From BBC
Melamine may not be the most elegant material, but I was grateful for the fact that, no matter how violently a 1-year-old dropped that plate, it would bounce and not shatter.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
