Forms: 5 splynter, 6– splinter, 7 splenter. [a. MDu. splinter (Du. and WFris. splinter), splenter (WFlem. splenter), = LG. splinter (hence in G.), splenter, related to SPLINT sb. Cf. SPLINDER sb.]
1. A rough (usually a comparatively long, thin and sharp-edged) piece of wood, bone, stone, etc., split or broken off, esp. as the result of violent impact; a chip, fragment or shiver.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. vii. (Bodl. MS.). A reod … hurteþ þe hande sone wiþ splynters.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 9. The staf brake,… and the pece and the splinter therof lepte, and smote oute the ladies eye.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 56. It draweth forth thornes & splinters or shiuers.
1634. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 25. His arrowes were fiue quarters long, headed with the splinters of a white christall-like stone.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Ps. xxix. 6. God … maketh those huge trees, the splinters of them, to flie up into the air.
1711. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 161. The bomb,… a splinter of which struck the lady.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (Rtldg.), 478/1. An arrow shattered the bone in such a manner, that splinters were taken out.
1801. Col. Stewart, in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1845), IV. 308. A shot through the mainmast knocked a few splinters about us.
1841. H. Miller, O. R. Sandst., vi. 116. Almost … every splinter of sandstone, every limestone nodule, contained its organism.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Rec., Ser. I. 59. The best means of drilling holes in glass is by using a splinter of a diamond.
b. fig. and in fig. context.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, To Father & Sons, Ile make such a splinter runne into your wits, as shal make them ranckle till you become fooles.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xx. 207. He fears not to have the splinters of his party (when it breaks) flie into his eyes.
1690. Temple, Ess., Poetry, Wks. 1720, I. 245. This Vein of Conceit seemed proper for such Scraps or Splinters into which Poetry was broken.
1730. Young, Ep. fr. Oxf., 184. Satire recoils whenever charg’d too high, Round your own fame the fatal splinters fly.
1856. W. E. Aytoun, Bothwell (1857), 95. The splinters and the accidents That flash from every deed of crime.
c. Used (chiefly with negatives) to denote a very small piece or amount, or something of little or no value.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 283. Hee’l say … The Grecian Dames are sun-burnt, and not worth The splinter of a Lance.
1658. Osborne, Mem. Jas. I., 56. It is … the … Custome and pure Nature of Humanity to venerate the least splinter of Antiquity.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, II. v. 320. As for the Ship he talked of, they were resolutely bent not to part with the least Splinter of it.
1769. Home, Fatal Discov., II. She is not worth the splinter of a spear.
d. In phr. in or into splinters. Also all to splinters, completely, thoroughly.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xii. 486. With the fearful shock, Their spears in splinters flew.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 172. When the bone broken into Splinters, is thrust inward.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 32, ¶ 2. Looking-Glasses … sometimes shivered into ten thousand Splinters.
1757. W. Wilkie, Epigoniad, VIII. 258. Short from the steel, the staff in splinters broke.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 483. Into fiery splinters leapt the lance.
1884. ‘H. Collingwood’ (W. Lancaster), Under Meteor Flag, 159. We beat Flinn all to splinters.
e. A sharp piece of rock projecting from the main body.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xiv. 94. A cliff, which afforded us … some protruding splinters to lay hold of by the hands.
2. A surgical splint. Obs. or dial.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 46/2. The splinter … must be made of stiffe paper, of latinn, or of any other substance.
1658. A. Fox, Würtz’ Surg., II. xvi. 122. These splinters were like such, as I used to Bone-fractures.
1820. A. Cooper, etc. Surg. Ess. (ed. 2), 165. The under splinter was a firm excavated piece of deal.
3. A comparatively thin piece or slender strip of wood prepared or used for some particular purpose. Cf. SPLINT sb. 2.
1648. Hexham, II. Een Schindel, a Shingle, or a Splenter.
1673–4. Grew, Anat. Pl., Anat. Trunks (1682), 121. The Perpendicular Splinters or Twigs of a Basket.
1723. Pres. State Russia, I. 307. The Roofs are made of thin Splinters of Fir.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 271. Piercing the stems or roots by a longitudinal cut through a joint, and keeping the wound open with a wedge or splinter.
b. Used as a torch, or dipped in tallow and used as a candle.
1751. England’s Gaz., s.v. Macclesfield, Fir-trees … which are dug up for various uses, but chiefly for splinters, that serve the poor for candles.
1791. W. Bartram, Carolina, 470. Some take with them little fascines of fat Pine splinters for torches.
1828. T. C. Croker, Fairy Leg. S. Irel., II. 155. While his rosy daughter held a splinter to her mother.
1851. T. H. Turner, Dom. Archit., I. ii. 68. It was therefore lit up with splinters and flambeaux.
1862. T. W. Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870), 24. Perusing a hymn-book by the light of a pine splinter.
† 4. A fiber or filament of undressed hemp. Cf. SHIVER sb.1 2. Obs.–1
1673. Boyle, Ess. Effluviums, II. 15. The thrids or splinters of Hemp the Rope was made up of.
† 5. = SPLINT sb. 5. Obs.–1
1704. Dict. Rust. (1726), s.v. Rules buying Horses, If there be hard knots on the inside of the Leg, they are Splinters.
6. ellipt. = SPLINTER-BAR 2. rare.
1794. Felton, Carriages (1801), I. 62. The front bar to a single-horse carriage is what the draught is mostly taken from, by means of a splinter hung thereto.
1801. trans. Gabrielli’s Myst. Husb., II. 68. The driver … appeared to have his doubts whether he should not object to my getting into the elegant vehicle, the splinter being certainly, in his opinion, more calculated for a person in my station.
7. attrib. and Comb., as splinter forceps, -hoop, wound; splinter net, -netting Naut., a net or netting of small rope spread on board a warship during action to protect the men from falling splinters; splinter-new a. dial. [cf. G. splinterneu, Du. splinternieuw, etc.], quite new. See also SPLINTER-BAR, -PROOF.
1681. Grew, Musæum, IV. iii. 374. A plain Indian Fan,… Made of the small stringy parts of Roots,… bound together with a Splinter-Hoop.
1799. Hull Advertiser, 17 Aug., 4/2. The flames coming up the companion and setting fire to the splinter netting.
1824–. Splinter-new (in Sc., Cumbld., Yks. dial. glossaries and texts).
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xvii. The hatchways being covered over with a strong splinter-netting.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, ix. The splinter wound in his head burst afresh.
1894. Daily News, 21 March, 5/2. Bulkheads, boats, splinter nets.
1895. Arnold & Sons’ Catal. Surg. Instrum., 82. Splinter Forceps.
