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Splinter vs Debris - What's the difference?

splinter | debris |

As nouns the difference between splinter and debris

is that splinter is a long, sharp fragment of material, often wood while debris is rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.

As a verb splinter

is to come apart into long sharp fragments.

splinter

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A long, sharp fragment of material, often wood.
  • A group that formed by splitting off from a larger membership.

    • Synonyms

    * (long sharp fragment) shard, spelk. * (group formed by splitting) faction, splinter group.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To come apart into long sharp fragments.
    • The tall tree splintered during the storm.
  • To cause to break apart into long sharp fragments.
    • His third kick splintered the door.
  • * Prescott
    • After splintering their lances, they wheeled about, and abandoned the field to the enemy.
  • (figuratively, of a group) To break, or cause to break, into factions.
    • The government splintered when the coalition members could not agree.
    The unpopular new policies splintered the company.
  • To fasten or confine with splinters, or splints, as a broken limb.
    • (Bishop Wren)

    Related terms

    * splint * splinter up

    debris

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Noun

    (-)
  • Rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=December 21, author=David M. Halbfinger, Charles V. Bagli and Sarah Maslin Nir, title=On Ravaged Coastline, It’s Rebuild Deliberately vs. Rebuild Now, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=His neighbors were still ripping out debris . But Mr. Ryan, a retired bricklayer who built his house by hand 30 years ago only to lose most of it to Hurricane Sandy, was already hard at work rebuilding. }}
  • Litter and discarded refuse.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
  • The ruins of a broken-down structure
  • (geology) Large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.

    • Anagrams

    *