smithereens
nounIE, UK /smɪðəˈɹiːnz/ · US /ˌsmɪðəˈɹinz/
Etymology Uncertain. The following words, all first attested later than the headword, have been compared: * Irish smidiríní, smiodairíní (“smithereens”), from smiodar (“broken piece, fragment”) + -ín (suffix forming diminutive nouns) + -í (slender form of -aí (suffix forming plurals of some nouns)). * smither (“fragment; atom”), which would be suffixed with -een (forming diminutive nouns in Irish English). * Hiberno-English (Wexford) smaddereen, a variant of smattering (“small amount or number of something; shallow or superficial knowledge of a subject”). * Hiberno-English (Wexford) smithered, smashed
1
Informal Fragments or splintered pieces; numerous tiny disconnected items.
- The urn shattered into smithereens the moment it hit the ground.
- When the waiter dropped the platter, one smithereen struck him above the knee, and the four remaining smithereens scattered across the floor.
2 more examples
- The world's smallest violin / Really needs an audience / So if I do not find somebody soon (That's right, that's right) / I'll blow up into smithereens2021 March 26, AJR, “World's Smallest Violin”, in OK Orchestra, US: AJR Productions, BMG Rights Management, →OCLC:
- However, something once happened on the railway there which showed the very best of mankind: heroism, duty, self-sacrifice and calm professionalism under terrible pressure. It is a story which gives us far, far better reasons for remembering this attractive little town, which without these heroes would have been blown to smithereens in a gigantic explosion. (Two railwaymen lost their lives in 1944 when a wagon in an ammunition train caught fire and blew up, an even worse disaster was averted however.)2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42: