Library / English Dictionary

SPLINTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small thin sharp bit or wood or glass or metal

Example:

it broke into slivers

Synonyms:

sliver; splinter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("splinter" is a kind of...):

bit; chip; flake; fleck; scrap (a small fragment of something broken off from the whole)

Derivation:

splinter (break up into splinters or slivers)

splinter (divide into slivers or splinters)

splintery (subject to breaking into sharp slender pieces)

splintery (resembling or consisting of or embedded with long slender fragments of (especially) wood having sharp points)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Break up into splinters or slivers

Example:

The wood splintered

Synonyms:

sliver; splinter

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "splinter" is one way to...):

break up; fragment; fragmentise; fragmentize (break or cause to break into pieces)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

splinter (a small thin sharp bit or wood or glass or metal)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Divide into slivers or splinters

Synonyms:

sliver; splinter

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "splinter" is one way to...):

carve up; dissever; divide; separate; split; split up (separate into parts or portions)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The wooden sticks splinter

Derivation:

splinter (a small thin sharp bit or wood or glass or metal)

splintering (the act of chipping something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Withdraw from an organization or communion

Example:

After the break up of the Soviet Union, many republics broke away

Synonyms:

break away; secede; splinter

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "splinter" is one way to...):

break; break up; part; separate; split; split up (discontinue an association or relation; go different ways)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The girls splinter the wooden sticks

Credits

 Context examples: 

It had been so forcibly driven against the jamb that part of the woodwork was splintered.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A splintered boat and a number of crates and fragments of spars rising and falling on the waves showed us where the vessel had foundered; but there was no sign of life, and we had turned away in despair when we heard a cry for help, and saw at some distance a piece of wreckage with a man lying stretched across it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The stick with which the deed had been done, although it was of some rare and very tough and heavy wood, had broken in the middle under the stress of this insensate cruelty; and one splintered half had rolled in the neighbouring gutter—the other, without doubt, had been carried away by the murderer.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

That we often put this powder into large hollow balls of iron, and discharged them by an engine into some city we were besieging, which would rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces, burst and throw splinters on every side, dashing out the brains of all who came near.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It is now necessary that we should try to throw some light upon this third bullet, which has clearly, from the splintering of the wood, been fired from inside the room.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you've ever gotten a splinter or had sand in your eye, you've had experience with a foreign body.

(Foreign Bodies, NIH)

The men tried to row with the splinters, and had them shot out of their hands.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

By good fortune, the wood was so light and rotten that it went to a thousand splinters, but Alleyne thought it best to leave the twain to settle the matter at their leisure, the more so as the sun was shining brightly once more.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It had been carried out and had been dashed savagely against the garden wall, under which its splintered fragments were discovered.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Kelly ripped up a bottom board and began paddling, but dropped it with a cry of pain as its splinters drove into his hands.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)