smithereens
Americanplural noun
plural noun
Etymology
Origin of smithereens
1820–30; dial. smithers (< ?) + Hiberno-English -een diminutive suffix (< Irish -ín )
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.
It’s not that my expectations for Donner’s first “Superman” were surpassed all those years ago; it’s that they were shattered to smithereens.
From Salon
Meanwhile, Musk has been watching his personal fortune shrink by the day and his reputation be blown to smithereens like one of his failed starship rockets.
From Salon
Ferran’s ragged butterfly Blanche looks at first glance as if she might be blown to smithereens with one gust of Stanley’s ferocious lung power.
From Los Angeles Times
We do, however, recognize something new and important, and we need to trust it, not blast it to smithereens, leaving us more shaken than stirred.
From Los Angeles Times
“That was how Hollywood was able to dramatize the impact of the bomb and the fact that we had the power to blow ourselves to smithereens.”
From Los Angeles Times
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.
