# shatter

Pronunciation: US say "SHAT-ur" /ˈʃæt.ɚ/; UK say "SHAT-uh" /ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/

## Verb

1. To break something into pieces with sudden, violent force.
   - Simple: To break something into many small pieces with force.
   - _The explosion shattered windows across the entire block._
   - _One hard throw can shatter a ceramic pot._
2. To break apart suddenly into many tiny fragments.
   - Simple: To break suddenly into many tiny pieces.
   - _The vase shattered the moment it slipped from her hands._
   - _Crystal goblets shatter easily if knocked together._
3. To break someone's spirit or destroy their emotional strength.
   - Simple: To make someone lose all their hope or courage.
   - _The diagnosis shattered him for weeks._
   - _Repeated failures can shatter even the most determined person._
4. To destroy or completely disable something.
   - Simple: To destroy something or stop it from working.
   - _The recession shattered the local economy._
   - _A single leak could shatter the company's reputation._
6. To fall, sometimes heavily as if to smash, sometimes lightly and dispersed.
   - Simple: To fall down, either heavily or in scattered drops.
   - _Hailstones shattered down onto the tin roof._
   - _Petals shatter from the old roses at the lightest touch._
7. Of seeds or grain: to break away and scatter from the plant once ripe.
   - Simple: Used about seeds, to drop from the plant and spread out once they are ripe.
   - _If left too long, the barley shatters and scatters across the field._
   - _Some ancient grains shatter readily, dropping seed before harvest._

## Noun

5. A brittle, glasslike concentrate of cannabis. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A hard, see-through kind of strong cannabis.
   - _The dispensary sold several grams of shatter that afternoon._
   - _Shatter breaks cleanly because of its glasslike texture._
8. A small scattered quantity of something, such as a sprinkling of seeds or a brief shower of rain.
   - Simple: A small amount of something spread around, like a few drops of rain.
   - _A shatter of hail bounced off the roof and was gone in seconds._
   - _Only a shatter of petals remained along the garden path._
9. A needle of a pine tree, usually used in the plural or as a mass noun for the needles that collect beneath the trees.
   - Simple: One of the thin, pointed leaves of a pine tree, usually talked about in the plural.
   - _Gardeners spread pine shatters around the strawberry plants to keep the soil from drying out._
   - _Her boots sank into the pine shatter that had built up under the old trees._

## Noun

10. A broken-off piece or fragment of something that has been smashed. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A small broken-off piece of something.
   - _A shatter of pottery cut his bare foot._
   - _Shatters of the windshield glittered across the road._

## Verb

11. To scatter or strew something about in various directions. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To throw or spread things around in different directions.

## Origin

From Middle English schateren ("to scatter, dash"), an assibilated form of scateren ("to scatter"), from Old English scaterian and Proto-Germanic *skat- ("to smash, scatter"), perhaps ultimately imitative. It is a doublet of scatter, with cognates including Dutch schateren ("to burst out laughing") and Albanian shkatërroj ("to destroy").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/shatter (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).