From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsplintersplin‧ter1 /ˈsplɪntə $ -ər/ noun [countable] PIECEa small sharp piece of wood, glass, or metal, that has broken off a larger piece I’ve got a splinter in my finger.splinter of splinters of glass —splintery adjective
Examples from the Corpus
splinter• He'd given up woodwork, having driven a splinter through his thumbnail.• They concluded that she would be exposed to great danger from a splinter of flax.• The window smashed and splinters of glass flew everywhere.• With the death of Stravinsky, it was a mass of splinters.• The doctor removed the small steel splinters that had lodged themselves in my leg in the explosion.• She sucked so hard that she drew the splinter of wood out of her finger.• Edward pulls out the splinter and hugs her to his chest to quench the flame.splinter of• splinters of glasssplintersplinter2 verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 BREAKif something such as wood splinters, or if you splinter it, it breaks into thin sharp pieces2 to separate into smaller groups or parts, or to make a group or organization do this, especially because of a disagreementsplinter into The once-powerful Communist Party has splintered into hundreds of pieces.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
splinter• So the civil rights movement began to splinter, and young blacks in particular followed more militant leaders.• In the area there are only limestone rocks which splinter easily and so are unsuitable for an inscription.• The coating helps prevent the glass from splintering if it is hit by a rock while you are driving.• Outside the places where wealth resided the world had also splintered into tribes and camps of the most primitive and bizarre form.• In the late 1980s the Communist party splintered into two factions.• These types of wood splinter more easily than redwood or cedar.• Even the March sun looks changed as it splinters off the chrome on the fold-away camp bed.• Countries splinter, regional trading blocs grow, the global economy becomes ever more interconnected.• The massive ranges of the Andes have splintered the country into hundreds of valleys and basins.• Ice storms splintered whole forests of trees in British Columbia.Origin splinter1 (1300-1400) Middle Dutch 