shard

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“
The striped or ferocious hyena, called the shard-wolf; and another, which the colonists call the bay-wolf, and which I believe to be the one known as the laughing hyena.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A piece of broken pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig; a potsherd.
  2. noun A fragment of a brittle substance, as of glass or metal.
  3. noun A small piece or part: "shards of intense emotional relationships that once existed” (Maggie Scarf).
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (46)

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This word has been looked up 160 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sliver ·  splinter ·  chunk ·  fragment ·  debris ·  slab ·  flake ·  bit ·  pebble ·  droplet ·  chip ·  boulder

Used in the same contextWord Family

shard:   shards
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English sherd, from Old English sceard, cut, notch; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Also sherd, and formerly sheard (Scots sharid); from Middle English scherd, scheard, shord, schord, scheord, from Anglo-Saxon sceard, a broken piece, a fragment (= Middle Dutch schaerde, a fragment, a crack, Dutch schaard, a fragment, a shard, = MLG, schart, Low German schaard, a fragment, a crack, = German scharte, a shard); from sceard, broken, cut off (= Old Saxon scard, = OFries. skerde = Old High German scart, Middle High German schart = Icelandic skardhr, diminished, hacked): with orig. past participle suffix -d (see -d, -ed), from sceran, cut, shear: see shear and cf. shard. In the sense of ‘shell’ or ‘wing-case’ shard may be due in part to Old French escharde, French écharde, a splinter, = Old Italian scarda, scale, shell, scurf.
  2. from Middle English * shard (not found in this sense ?), prob. from Icelandic skardh = Dutch schaard = Middle Low German schart, a notch, = Old High German scarti, Middle High German G. scharte; a notch, cut, fissure, saw-wort; of like origin with shard—namely, from Anglo-Saxon sceard = Old High German scart = Icelandic skardhr, etc., adjective, cut, notched: see shard.
  3. Cf. shard, sharn.
 

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/ʃɑrd/
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