Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The scattered remains of something broken or destroyed; rubble or wreckage.
  • noun Carelessly discarded refuse; litter.
  • noun Geology An accumulation of relatively large rock fragments.
  • noun Biology The fragmented remains of dead or damaged cells or tissue.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
  • noun Litter and discarded refuse.
  • noun The ruins of a broken-down structure
  • noun geology Large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French débris, from Old French debrisier, to break to pieces : de-, intensive pref.; see de– + brisier, to break (from Vulgar Latin *brīsāre, to press grapes, probably of Celtic origin).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French débris, itself from dé- ("de-") + bris ("broken, crumbled"), or from Middle French debriser ("to break apart"), from Old French debrisier, itself from de- + brisier ("to break apart, shatter, bust"), from Frankish *brestan (“to break violently, shatter, bust”), from Proto-Germanic *brestanan (“to break, burst”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhrest- (“to separate, burst”). Cogante with Old High German bristan ("to break asunder, burst"), Old English berstan ("to break, shatter, burst"). More at burst.

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Examples

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  • BrE speakers strongly prefer stress on the initial syllable (either /'deb-/ or /'deɪb-/) to final /-'briː/ (83% in a 2007 survey for the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary).

    August 4, 2008

  • What de mohel gives de boychild.

    August 5, 2008

  • Mazel!

    August 5, 2008