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Shatter vs Wreck - What's the difference?

shatter | wreck | Related terms |

Shatter is a related term of wreck.


As verbs the difference between shatter and wreck

is that shatter is to violently break something into pieces while wreck is to destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless.

As nouns the difference between shatter and wreck

is that shatter is (archaic) a fragment of anything shattered while wreck is something or someone that has been ruined.

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)

    wreck

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something or someone that has been ruined.
  • He was an emotional wreck after the death of his wife.
  • The remains of something that has been severely damaged or worn down.
  • * Cowper
  • To the fair haven of my native home, / The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come.
  • An event in which something is damaged through collision.
  • * Addison
  • the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds
  • * Spenser
  • Hard and obstinate / As is a rock amidst the raging floods, / 'Gainst which a ship, of succour desolate, / Doth suffer wreck , both of herself and goods.
  • * J. R. Green
  • Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life.
  • (legal) Goods, etc. cast ashore by the sea after a shipwreck.
  • (Bouvier)

    Synonyms

    * crash * ruins

    Derived terms

    * shipwreck

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless.
  • He wrecked the car in a collision.
    That adulterous hussy wrecked my marriage!
  • * Shakespeare
  • Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked .
  • To ruin or dilapidate.
  • (Australia) To dismantle wrecked vehicles or other objects, to reclaim any useful parts.
  • To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on.
  • * Daniel
  • Weak and envied, if they should conspire, / They wreck themselves.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * build * construct * make * produce

    Derived terms

    * bewreck * wrecker * wreckage

    References