shattered
Syllables: shat·teredUK/ˈʃætəd//ˈʃætɚd/
shattered is the simple past and past participle of shatter.
Adjective
shattered (comparative more shattered, superlative most shattered)
- Physically broken into pieces.
- It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 30, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC
- Emotionally defeated or dispirited.
- Well, she died after seven years of marriage, and Mill thought that he was shattered, and shattered no doubt he was, in the sense of this absolutely irreparable emotional loss.2000, Lionel Robbins, A history of economic thought: the LSE lectures, Princeton University Press, page 221
- She refused to see him for two days. He was shattered. He sent his apologies.2000, Nellie McHenry, chapter 26, in Forbidden Dreams of Love
- Synonyms:
- despondent, disheartened, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless
- Extremely tired or exhausted.
- I stayed up all night working, and now I'm completely shattered.
- Synonyms:
- busted, weary, bleareyed, bleary, bleary-eyed, bone-tired, bushed, tired out, spent, wrecked
Meaning of shatter
Verb
shatter (third-person singular simple present shatters, present participle shattering, simple past and past participle shattered)
- Of brittle solid materials (like glass or ice), to violently break into pieces.
- The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.
- To destroy, disable.
- To dispirit or emotionally defeat.
- to be shattered in intellect
- Of 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
- To scatter about.
- Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC
- To fall sometimes connoting hard, as if to smash something, other times light and dispersed.
- Bulletlike rain shattered down. Instantly, Willy was soaked to the skin. Then her right foot skidded out before her, and she felt her balance begin to go. Inevitably and with shocking swiftness came the moment when her body obeyed gravity[…]2006 March 28, Peter Straub, In the Night Room: A Novel, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 190
Synonyms of shattered
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of shattered
| comparative | more shattered |
|---|---|
| superlative | most shattered |
Words formed from shattered
Phrases with shattered
Questions about shattered
- What does shattered mean?
- Shattered means physically broken into pieces.
- What is shattered the simple past and past participle of?
- Shattered is the simple past and past participle of shatter.
- What part of speech is shattered?
- Shattered is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce shattered?
- Shattered is pronounced /ˈʃætɚd/ (US).
Words near shattered in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shattered (page history and authors); shatter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shattered.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shattered.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shattered. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.