Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use shatter in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Shatter means of brittle solid materials (like glass or ice), to violently break into pieces. Example: “The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.”

Examples of shatter by meaning

verbOf brittle solid materials (like glass or ice), to violently break into pieces.

  • The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.
  • a high-pitched voice that could shatter glass
  • The old oak tree has been shattered by lightning.

verbTo dispirit or emotionally defeat.

  • to be shattered in intellect
  • to have shattered hopes
  • to have a shattered constitution

verbOf seeds: to disperse (become dispersed) upon ripening.

  • Harvesting is done much as with alfalfa, but alsike seed is small and shatters if it is not handled carefully.1961, Yearbook of Agriculture, page 175

verbTo fall sometimes connoting hard, as if to smash something, other times light and dispersed.

  • Bulletlike rain shattered down.2006 March 28, Peter Straub, In the Night Room: A Novel, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 190
  • The heavens opened up, and the rain shattered down.2008 April 29, Shana Abé, The Last Mermaid: A Novel, Bantam, →ISBN

nounA fragment of anything shattered.

  • to break a glass into shatters

nounA (pine) needle.

  • "I plumb forgot the pine shatters.2012, Marguerite Henry, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 95

nounA scattering, a smattering; a quantity of something scattered, like a sprinkling of seeds or a shower of rain.

  • There's a tidy shatter of sin already in the Fee, says Parson.1931, Gerald Bullett, Marden Fee, page 99
  • It takes his eyes a moment to adjust, to get used to the misty glow of the moon above them, to take in the wild look of their yard, and the shatter of rain.2025 January 7, Sophie Overett, The Rabbits, Pushkin Press, →ISBN

More sentences with shatter

  • Ernst slipped and dropped his torch on the flagstones, shattering the bulb and plunging us into darkness.From the entry torch
  • She caught the fragile vase before it could shatter on the floor.From the entry fragile
  • The swordsmith quenched the sword in an oil bath so that it wouldn't shatter.From the entry quench
  • The urn shattered into smithereens the moment it hit the ground.From the entry smithereens
  • I stayed up all night working, and now I'm completely shattered.From the entry shattered
  • It took years for the archeologist to piece together the fragments of the shattered vase.From the entry piece together
  • The glass bottle dropped down to the ground where it shattered.From the entry drop down
  • The cynical world soon shattered my young dreams.From the entry young
  • She searched vainly for her reflection in the shattered mirror.From the entry vainly
  • In scorching Beijing, “facekinis” are the hottest new fashion as surging temperatures shatter records.2023 July 21, Reuters, “‘Facekinis’ become popular in China as temperatures soar”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry facekini
  • MTI society has commodified everything and shattered our sense of community and interdependence.2023, Robert R. Janes, Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN. From the entry MTI
  • His writing about the shattering nature of syphilis is both devastating and a bit sly.2019 November 8, Dwight Garner, “From Nabokov and Lawrence, Giants of 20th-Century Fiction, New Volumes of Nonfiction”, in New York Times. From the entry rugburn
  • The "lavender ceiling" has been shattered — after nearly a century in place.2017 February 27, Mary Emily O'Hara, “'Moonlight' Makes Oscars History as 1st LGBTQ Best Picture Winner”, in NBC News, archived from the…. From the entry lavender ceiling
  • This time the topmast fell in a flutter of canvas and shattered spars.2015, Karl W Heffelfinger, Headlong Into Hell. From the entry flutter
  • Whatever they were, they were shattered when we stopped in the town of Panchihhua.2015, Bill Porter, “Final Leg”, in South of the Clouds: Travels in Southwest China, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 257. From the entry Panchihhua
  • Ker-thump, shatter, shatter, Ker-thump, shatter, the sound of the round thermos rolling towards the stage.2013, Suzy Harrison Ward, Walking on Sunshine, page 36. From the entry kerthump
  • Before he closed and opened his eyes, the bails on the wicket behind Johnny Masih were shattered.2012, K. L. Mohana Varma, Cricket-Indo: The Story of an Indo-Pak One-Day Cricket Turf War, page 205. From the entry procession
  • Soldiers everywhere returned home to try to piece together the broken fragments of shattered lives.2012, Michael Phillips, Land of the Brave and the Free, page 221. From the entry returning
  • The numbing of hibakusha reflected a shattering of the psychic forms of the self.2011, Robert Jay Lifton, Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 130. From the entry numbing
  • Her skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast at close range.2010, Kathryn Casey, Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder, back cover. From the entry Belinda
  • World War I shattered the gossima delusions of the aristocracy, and the Great Depression humbled the rest.2010, Roger Bennett, Eli Horowitz, Everything You Know Is Pong, Harper Collins, →ISBN, page 4. From the entry gossima
  • You know how when you break a glass, it shatters all over the floor?2010, Barbara Dee, This Is Me From Now On. From the entry majillion
  • Instead of front yards, Greg and his older brother Kevin had shattered glass and dirt.2006 July, Paul Kix, “Framed”, in D Magazine. From the entry Ts and blues
  • "Well, I'm sorry to shatter your dreams, but most châteaus are not like that at all."2005, Kevin Zraly, 'Windows On The World Complete Wine Course 2006, page 110. From the entry châteaus
  • Going down by nine points when we seemed to have the run of play was shattering.2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 225. From the entry run of play
  • I wanted to put on kid gloves and be there in case the shattering came."2005, Jeffrey John Kripal, Glenn W. Shuck, On the Edge of the Future: Esalen and the Evolution of American Culture, page 154. From the entry kid glove
  • The combination of air and nakedness present in the airbath regenerated shattered neves.2005, Chad Ross, Naked Germany: health, race and the nation, page 96. From the entry airbath

Meaning of shatter

  1. verb Of brittle solid materials (like glass or ice), to violently break into pieces.
  2. verb To destroy, disable.
  3. verb To dispirit or emotionally defeat.

Full definition of shatter

Questions about shatter in a sentence

How do you use shatter in a sentence?
Shatter is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.”
What is a short sentence with shatter?
“Bulletlike rain shattered down.”
What does shatter mean?
Shatter means of brittle solid materials (like glass or ice), to violently break into pieces.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shatter (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use shatter in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/shatter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.