splinter
noun
a small, thin, sharp piece of wood, bone, or the like, split or broken off from the main body.
was splintering
-
past progressiveof splinter.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
That eruption timing corresponds to a volatile period in Earth’s tectonic history when one of the first supercontinents, called Nuna, was splintering apart.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 19, 2023
It hurt so much at the time — like it was splintering the world we’d made from the world around us — that we could be together only in an alternate dimension.
From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2021
Already by al-Rashid’s reign, however, the Caliphate was splintering; it was simply too large to run efficiently without advanced bureaucratic institutions.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
While Theo navigated the labyrinth of America’s asylum process, his home in Anglophone Cameroon was splintering.
From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2018
As most of the w00w00 membership took serious jobs, often at each other's companies, the security industry as a whole was splintering.
From Reuters ● Mar. 7, 2014
