Link Centre Dictionary

shatter

shat·ter

UK/ˈʃatə/ US/ˈʃætə/ fairly common slang

verb

1.

break into many pieces

  • “The wine glass shattered”
2.

break into many pieces

  • “shatter the plate”

Origin

From Middle English schateren (“to scatter, dash”), an assibilated form of Middle English scateren ("to scatter"; see scatter), from Old English scaterian, from Proto-Germanic *skat- (“to smash, scatter”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Cognate with Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”), Low German schateren, Albanian shkatërroj (“to destroy, devastate”). Doublet of scatter.

Phrases

  • shatter attack
  • shatter cone
  • shatter the ice

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.