SPLINTER

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does splinter mean? 

• SPLINTER (noun)
  The noun SPLINTER has 1 sense:

1. a small thin sharp bit or wood or glass or metal

  Familiarity information: SPLINTER used as a noun is very rare.

• SPLINTER (verb)
  The verb SPLINTER has 3 senses:

1. withdraw from an organization or communion

2. divide into slivers or splinters

3. break up into splinters or slivers

  Familiarity information: SPLINTER used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPLINTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small thin sharp bit or wood or glass or metal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

sliver; splinter

Context example:

it broke into slivers

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)

• SPLINTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they splinter    ... he / she / it splinters   
Past simple: splintered   
Past participle: splintered   
-ing form: splintering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Withdraw from an organization or communion

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

break away; secede; splinter

Context example:

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

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Divide into slivers or splinters

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

sliver; splinter

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:

Break up into splinters or slivers

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

sliver; splinter

Context example:

The wood splintered

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)

 Context examples 

Some foreign bodies, like a small splinter, do not cause serious harm.

(Foreign Bodies, NIH)

Next instant, with a loud shout of triumph he held up one splinter, in which a round, dark object was fixed like a plum in a pudding.

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

"You did right to hold fast to each other," I said: as if the monster- splinters were living things, and could hear me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They reeled about the room, locked in each other's arms, and came down with a crash across the splintered wreckage of a wicker chair.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Sir John, said the prince as he rode through the winding streets on his way to the list, I should have been glad to have splintered a lance to-day.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The boat had lain there for a long time, for it was half filled with sand, and the splintered wood had that weather-worn appearance due to long exposure to the elements.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Far down at the base of the cliff I saw, as I looked over, a tangled mass of branches and splintered trunk.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Buck rushed at the splintering wood, sinking his teeth into it, surging and wrestling with it.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

On the cooler, dark side of the planet, the atoms can recombine into molecules and condense into clouds, all before drifting back into the dayside to be splintered again.

(Water Is Destroyed, Then Reborn in Ultrahot Jupiters, NASA/JPL)