Crossword Dictionary

shatter

shatter, shatters, shattered, shattering - v 
to break into pieces 

Wordplays

Synonyms

annihilate, cream, decimate, demolish, desolate, destroy, devastate, do in, extinguish, nuke, pull down, pulverize, raze, rub out, ruin, smash, tear down, total, vaporize, waste, wrack, wreck

sentence examples

"The rock shattered the window."

“His dreams were shattered by their rejection.”

“The end of his marriage shattered him emotionally.”

“Why would one shatter their friendships in such an explosive way?”

Merriam-Webster

etymology

shatter (v.)

early 14c., transitive, probably a variant of Middle English scateren (see scatter (v.)). Compare Old Dutch schetteren Low German schateren. Formations such as scatter-brained had parallel forms in shatter-brained, etc. Intransitive sense from 1560s. Carlyle (1841) used shatterment. Shatters "fragments" is from 1630s.