Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Origin: Probably from an unrecorded Old English sceaterian

shatter

 verb
     
shat‧ter
1 [intransitive and transitive] to break suddenly into very small pieces, or to make something break in this way
shatter into
The plate hit the floor, and shattered into tiny bits.
The explosion shattered the building.
2 [transitive] to completely destroy someone's hopes, beliefs, or confidence:
Their hopes and dreams were shattered by war.
A few weeks in a tiny damp room soon shattered his illusions about university life.
WORD FOCUS: break WORD FOCUS: break
smash with a lot of force
shatter into many pieces
split into two pieces
snap into two pieces, with a sudden loud noise
tear paper/cloth
burst pipe/tyre/balloon
crumble break into a lot of small pieces
disintegrate break into a lot of small pieces and be destroyed
fracture if a bone fractures or you fracture it, it breaks slightly so that a small line appears on the surface

➔ See also break
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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