Link Centre Dictionary

smithereens

smit·he·reens

UK/smɪðəˈɹiːnz/ US/ˌsmɪðəˈɹinz/ uncommon informal

noun

1.

a collection of small fragments considered as a whole

  • “Berlin was bombed to smithereens”
  • “his hopes were dashed to smithereens”
  • “I wanted to smash him to smithereens”
  • “the toilet bowl ws blown to smithereens”

Origin

Uncertain. The following words, all first attested later than the headword, have been compared: * Irish smidiríní, smiodairíní (“smithereens”), from smiodar (“broken piece, fragment”) + -ín (suffix forming diminutive nouns) + -í (slender form of -aí (suffix forming plurals of some nouns)). * smither (“fragment; atom”), which would be suffixed with -een (forming diminutive nouns in Irish English). * Hiberno-English (Wexford) smaddereen, a variant of smattering (“small amount or number of something; shallow or superficial knowledge of a subject”). * Hiberno-English (Wexford) smithered, smashed

Related words

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.