shatter
/ˈʃatə
/verb
1Break or cause to break suddenly and violently into pieces: [no object]: bullets riddled the bar top, glasses shattered, bottles exploded [with object]: the window was shattered by a stone...
- With a stealthy leap, Percival broke through the window, shattering pieces of glass over the floor in front of the window, and on the roof right outside it.
- The glass top shattered in a million pieces flying across the room like shrapnel.
- Her mirror that hung on the door was broken - shattered into hundreds of pieces as if fell to the ground.
Synonyms
smash, smash to smithereens, break, break into pieces, burst, blow out;
explode, implode;
splinter, crack, fracture, fragment, disintegrate
informal bust
rare shiver
1.1 [with object] Damage or destroy (something abstract): the crisis will shatter their confidence...
- The gym hall was strewn with sobbing lassies, their lives ruined, their confidence shattered by human error.
- We must destroy before they shatter our being with their ignorance.
- Early losses can end a team's season, wreck its confidence, shatter its psyche.
Synonyms
destroy, wreck, ruin, dash, crush, devastate, demolish, wreak havoc with, blast, blight, wipe out, overturn, torpedo, scotch;
burst someone's bubble
informal put the kibosh on, banjax, do for, blow a hole in, nix, put paid to, queer
British informal scupper, dish
archaic bring to naught
2 [with object] Upset (someone) greatly: everyone was shattered by the news...
- At a book signing in Edinburgh, I saw him in the flesh, and I was shattered by the experience.
- Thomas's senseless, sudden death during a night out with friends shocked York and shattered a family.
- Stevie joins us live to perform his brand new single and his gift for the people shattered by the storm.
Synonyms
devastate, shock, stun, daze, dumbfound, traumatize, crush, overwhelm, greatly upset, distress
informal knock for six, knock sideways, knock the stuffing out of
devastating, crushing, staggering, severe, savage, overwhelming, traumatic, very great, dreadful, terrible, awful
Derivatives
shatterable
shatterer
- As he watched the huge mushroom cloud rise 30,000 feet, he murmured words in Sanskrit from the great Hindu scripture, the Bhaghavad-Gita: ‘I am become Death; the shatterer of worlds.’
- Second only to car alarms as a shatterer of urban tranquillity are ‘boom-box’ cars - vehicles rigged with stereo amplifiers so powerful that they can rattle windowpanes blocks away.
shatterproof
/ adjective ...- Bars will be stocked with toughened and shatterproof glass, staff will be given special safety training, and the company will set up a special community fund to help create a safer environment in town and city centres.
- It is made of an extremely durable synthetic material that makes it shatterproof and scratch resistant (not scratchproof).
- And I don't think he knows about the bottle of ketchup that met an ignominious end on that carpet when my brothers decided to test the shatterproof claim on the ketchup bottle.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'scatter, disperse'): perhaps imitative; compare with scatter.