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Rend vs Shatter - What's the difference?

rend | shatter | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between rend and shatter

is that rend is to part or tear off forcibly; to take away by force while shatter is to dispirit or emotionally defeat.

In intransitive terms the difference between rend and shatter

is that rend is to be rent or torn; to become parted; to separate; to split while shatter is to smash, or break into tiny pieces.

As a noun shatter is

a fragment of anything shattered.

rend

English

Verb

  • To separate into parts with force or sudden violence; to tear asunder; to split; to burst
  • Powder rends a rock in blasting.
    Lightning rends an oak.
  • * 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
  • If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak / And peg thee in his knotty entrails till / Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.
  • * 1970 , Alvin Toffler, Future Shock'', ''Bantam Books , pg. 317:
  • We are most vulnerable now to the messages of the new subcults, to the claims and counterclaims that rend the air.
  • To part or tear off forcibly; to take away by force.
  • To be rent or torn; to become parted; to separate; to split.
  • Relationships may rend if tempers flare.
    Rending of garments for shiva is a Jewish tradition.

    Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs ----

    shatter

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to violently break something 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.
  • to destroy or disable something.
  • to smash, or break into tiny pieces.
  • to dispirit or emotionally defeat
  • to be shattered''' in intellect; to have '''shattered''' hopes, or a '''shattered constitution
  • * 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36
  • Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.
  • * 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News , Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41
  • A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.
  • * 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163
  • The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
  • * Norris
  • a man of a loose, volatile, and shattered humour
  • (obsolete) To scatter about.
  • * Milton
  • Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
  • to break a glass into shatters
    (Jonathan Swift)