Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Informal Fragments or splintered pieces; bits: The fragile dish broke into smithereens.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Small fragments.
Wiktionary
- n. Fragments or splintered pieces; numerous tiny disconnected items.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. colloq. Fragments; atoms; smithers.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a collection of small fragments considered as a whole
Etymologies
- From Irish smidiríní, diminutive form of smiodar ("fragment"). (Wiktionary)
- From Irish Gaelic smidirīn, diminutive of smiodar, small fragment. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Blow ... to smithereens is too slangy for formal use; it is used in a quote further on in the Times article, and is the kind of vernacular phrase found in boys adventure comics.”
“I think the best use you can put a rattlesnake to is to blow him into smithereens, which is what I am going to do.”
Two Boys in Wyoming A Tale of Adventure (Northwest Series, No. 3)
“The monkey was literally knocked to "smithereens," and the pieces that still adhered together were daubed all over with mud.”
The Forest Exiles The Perils of a Peruvian Family in the Wilds of the Amazon
“That's thrue, sor," put in Corporal Macan, who had lately regained his stripes after a long spell of good behaviour that atoned for his debauch at the Cape which lost him his rank; the Irishman now being engaged in serving the bow gun of the gunboat with the utmost deliberation, taking steady aim with each shot which he pitched into the cavalier of the nearest battery and knocking the gun into "smithereens" at his third attempt, though, for every weapon of the enemy which we silenced they seemed to bring a hundred others to bear on us.”
“smithereens," and was about going to work upon the huge _stalagmite_ that blocked up the entrance, when he was interrupted by the Quan.”
“smithereens," or, as my companion more elegantly expressed it, "into the middle of next week.”
“Readers may want to pop a Dramamine before reading Casey's account of the RSS Discovery, a British research vessel that was nearly pounded to smithereens by a massive storm in the North Atlantic in 2000.”
The Washington Post: Susan Casey's "The Wave," on monstrous ocean waves, reviewed by John Lancaster
“Rosen earned the title during a debate last week, when he responded to a question about the controversial proposed Islamic center near ground zero in New York City by saying "I think they should be allowed to build it, following the hijacking of an Iranian plane right into that building and blow it to smithereens.”
The Huffington Post: Mike Rosen Claims 'Worst Person' Title On Olbermann (VIDEO)
“I think they should be allowed to build it, followed by the hijacking of an Iranian plane right into that building and blow it to smithereens.”
“It's sole purpose is to lock my head into place with bolts and hold it absolutely still on a steel table so that precisely aimed beams of radiation way more powerful than any DC diss-ray can zap the remnants of my brain tumor into smithereens day after day for the next six weeks.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘smithereens’.
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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Silly-sounding words
Serious words that sound silly when you say them
philosophunculist, argy-bargy, Labradoodle, shittah, shittim, floccinaucinihili..., succedaneum, honorificabilitud..., fag-ma-fuff, buffarilla, yazzihamper, mammothrept and 140 more...
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Devans00's Wonder Words
Words that catch my fancy. Make me wish I was clever enough to work them into conversation without upsetting people.
sweven, combat nap, junior moment, smithereens, requel, interesting, ityf, beerboarding, mouse potato, skimmington, destinesia, louche and 15 more...
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TEN DOLLAR WORDS
brouhaha, foofaraw, ruckus, slumgullion, snollygoster, slangwhanger, slugabed, hodgepodge, rapscallion, muckamuck, hornswoggle, sockdolager and 5 more...
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Fireclature
Names for firecrackers, real or imagined . . .
The more martial, erotic, ferocious, or just plain ridiculous, the betterbad mutha trucka, hen laying egg, nuclear reactor, shock n awesome, lulu mccoy, the big o, festival balls, tiger fury, tazmanian devil, blondie, magic 8-ball, bad mutha and 58 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
niglets, aw, flakey, shiznit, thatch, sexy, bummers, hotty, eargasms, ratchetry, weird, fab and 457 more... -
Pluralia Tantum
Nouns that are common in plural form but are non-existent or rarely used in singular form.
scissors, thanks, clothes, remains, tights, trousers, pants, news, billiards, means, mathematics, physics and 221 more...
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words
pointingstock, kibosh, turnspit, ant-bear, earthborn, pitter, infold, hayseed, stoker, prismatic, backcross, blizzard and 96 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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How very mikeropological..
Basically it's just mikeropology's words, but with his username turned into an adjectivally splendid list name.
mikeropology, squoze, anthropromorphism, mullu, spondylus, goobers, hipster, burnt umber, ochre, canvas, lapizure, burnt sienna and 172 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
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Slang words of Irish origin according...
Compare the etymologies of these words as given in the OED with the Gaelic backgrounders in this book, How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads (Counterpunch, 2007). Awai...
smack, snazzy, pussy, geek, dork, dude, smudge, snap, slugger, slum, scam, slew and 102 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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JJMARLETTE's Words
phantasmagorical, antidisestablishm..., gargantuan, apocryphal, maim, disembowel, viscous, apothecary, seminal, exponential, googol, googolplex and 90 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for smithereens.

skipvia As is varmint. :-) Jun 17, 2008
devans00 This word is said in Yosemite Sam's voice in my mind. Jun 17, 2008