Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use splinter in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Splinter means a long, sharp fragment of material, often wood. Example: “The tall tree splintered during the storm.”

Examples of splinter by meaning

verbTo come apart into long sharp fragments.

  • The tall tree splintered during the storm.
  • It was all coming at her now: the fatigue and the fever; pieces of her lung splintering and mixing with her throwup; the calcifications on her bones, where the disease had already spread.2012, Marcus Samuelsson, “One: My African Mother”, in Yes, Chef, Random House, →ISBN, page 6

verbTo cause to break apart into long sharp fragments.

  • His third kick splintered the door.

verbTo break, or cause to break, into factions.

  • The government splintered when the coalition members could not agree.
  • The unpopular new policies splintered the company.

More sentences with splinter

  • When the car crashed into the deck, it chiseled up sharp splinters of wood.From the entry chisel up
  • The splinter has buried itself under the nail.From the entry bury
  • I need to pull the splinter out of my hand.From the entry pull out
  • Splinter groups in the centre Left or centre Right are often a shot in the arm for the Far Right or the Communist Party.From the entry splinter group
  • More shells and splinters came the pontooner's way than anyone else's.2019, Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert Chandler and Yury Bit-Yunan, Stalingrad, page 232. From the entry pontooner
  • Then slowly it toppled over backwards and fell with a splintering crash of coachwork and glass.1953, Ian Fleming, “The Crawling of the Skin”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 110. From the entry coachwork
  • All of the neuropathic pain was back in her hands, a continuous sparkling flare, like being pricked by glass splinters.2021, Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace, Tor, page 343. From the entry neuropathic pain
  • The smaller shells make a complete slaughterhouse of the bridge, and the splinters scythe through anyone out on deck.2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 20:09 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov…. From the entry scythe
  • In the foreground of the photograph were the splintered remains of a pink poodle barometer promising fair weather.2017, Sophie Hénaff, The Awkward Squad. From the entry bombsite
  • Augustine's indication that Tertullian himself founded the Tertullianists as a splinter group from the Carthaginian Montanists is unlikely.2017, Julian Barr, Tertullian and the Unborn Child: Christian and Pagan Attitudes in Historical Perspective, Taylor & Francis (Routledge)…. From the entry Tertullianist
  • Only unframe if glass front protection is splintered.2008, ICOM Committee for Conservation, 15th Triennial Conference, New Delhi, 22-26 September 2008, page 804. From the entry unframe
  • The metal banding he was currently winding round a loaded pallet twisted and snapped like a splinter of wood.2000, Dana Stabenow, Midnight Come Again, →ISBN, page 75. From the entry bander
  • I've been shanghaied by a darn splinter!'1995, Sega Multimedia Studio, Wild Woody, Sega. From the entry shanghai
  • In telegraphic succession, the parents two-step, Charleston, lindy, twist, and frug, their dance harmony always splintered apart by their offspring.1991, Marcia B. Siegel, Nathaniel Tileston, The Tail of the Dragon: New Dance, 1976–1982, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 158. From the entry frug
  • The rollers wore grooves in the nursery floors and the chars complained of getting splinters in their hands while scrubbing.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 77. From the entry char
  • The back of the chair splintered with a sharp crack.1953, Ian Fleming, “The Deadly Tube”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 89. From the entry head over heels
  • Stones splintered by fire, or faceted by sandstorms (ventifacts or dreikanters) are occasionally mistaken for the work of man.1949, Kenneth Page Oakley, Man the Tool-Maker. From the entry ventifact
  • Instead, there was a sudden scrunch of iron, a splintering of wood, and the door swung loosely open.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries. From the entry scrunch
  • I even observed one bird aimlessly carrying a splinter of wood, uncertain of its utility, yet unwilling to release it.1904 May–June, Walter K[enrick] Fisher, “The Home Life of a Buccaneer”, in Walter K. Fisher, editor, The Condor: A Magazine of Western…. From the entry glean
  • Plastic in the ocean is constantly being degraded; even something as big and buoyant as a milk jug will eventually shed and splinter into microplastics.2022 April 3, Sabrina Imbler, “In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 05…. From the entry plastisphere
  • The post-Moldbug neoreactionaries still draw on his foundational writings, but the movement is morphing and splintering, and characterized by a conflict between nationalists and “techno-commercialists.”2017 February 10, Rosie Gray, “Behind the Internet's Anti-Democracy Movement”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 10 Jan 2020. From the entry neoreactionary
  • She got toefuls of splinters for her efforts, but it was far better than listening to the ceaseless wail and moan of the undead.2016, Will Strange, Outlaws of New Jerusalem: Book 2, Wasteland. From the entry toeful
  • This Palestinian "Intrafada" epitomizes one way in which the primary conflict over Israel has splintered over the years into multiple political struggles.2016, Joyce S. Dubensky, editor, Peacemakers in Action: Profiles in Religious Peacebuilding, volume II, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge…. From the entry intrafada
  • This splintered concentration of data further consolidates analytical capabilities in the hands of the few and divides the network into the analysors and the analysed.2015, Ganesh G., Debanjum Singh Solanky, Govindaraj R, “Collaborative peer production as an alternative to hierarchical internet based…. From the entry analysors
  • The OWS movement splintered after Mayor Michael Bloomberg had police raid Zuccotti Park and it has been unable to articulate a clear message since.2013, “Distracted Americans unruffled by OWS”, in Real Estate Weekly, 58(48), 09/18/2013, page A18. From the entry ows
  • A few lousy days at Camp Minnehaha spent extracting oar splinters from your palms and taking group lanyard lessons under the full noonday sun.2008, Natalie Angier, The Canon, page 58. From the entry lanyard
  • After gingerly stepping through you pause quickly to inspect the sole of your feet and brush away the visible splinters, then continue on your way.1988, Wendy Ann Wood, Vicki P., “Slivers”, in Julie Livingston, editor, Triumph Over Darkness: Understanding and Healing the Trauma of…. From the entry bark dust
  • Sometimes, although a metal splinter is present in the bulb, there are reasons to believe that metallosis is not bound to develop.1958, Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom. From the entry metallosis
  • Once, on the wood's further edge, he heard a splintering crack and leapt backwards as a torn limb hurtled towards him through the darkness.1955, John Keir Cross, The dancing tree, page 185. From the entry outbranch
  • Josephine Mysowski, of Wapwallopen RD 2, was treated in Berwick Hospital dispensary this morning for a splinter under the right ring fingernail.1950 September 27, “Lady Ester Employee Suffers Finger Injury”, in Berwick Enterprise, volume XLVIII, number 147, Berwick, Pa., →OCLC…. From the entry ring fingernail
  • If you use our waterproof bobbins you don't have any looms banging off because of filling yarn breaking on splintered, cracked and split bobbins.1915, America's Textile Reporter, page 832. From the entry bang off
  • Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy.1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as…. From the entry hack
  • Pinioning its extremities with the edge of the towel, she crushed off its offensive and defensive weapons with a splinter from the wall.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia…. From the entry pinion
  • Baseball was "as natural as breathing," played with towsacks or bushes for bases, splintered bats held together with electric tape, and teams with from two to two dozen players.1997, Paxton Davis, Being a Boy, page 262. From the entry towsack
  • The sun found its way between the fresh leaflings overhead, and in order to inspect the splinter more effectually I went down on my knees at Felicia's feet.1907, Thomas Cobb, The amateur emigrants. From the entry leafling

Meaning of splinter

  1. noun A long, sharp fragment of material, often wood.
  2. noun A small such fragment that gets embedded in the flesh.
  3. noun A group that formed by splitting off from a larger membership.

Full definition of splinter

Questions about splinter in a sentence

How do you use splinter in a sentence?
Splinter is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The tall tree splintered during the storm.”
What is a short sentence with splinter?
“His third kick splintered the door.”
What does splinter mean?
Splinter means a long, sharp fragment of material, often wood.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: splinter (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 splinter in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/splinter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.