a. (and adv.). Also 8–9 splintry. [f. SPLINTER sb. and v. + -Y. Cf. Du. splinterig, WFris. splinterich.]
1. Min. Of fracture: Characterized by the production of small splinters.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 34. Of this [i.e., compact] fracture there are six sorts, the uneven, even, conchoidal, splintery, earthy, and hackly. Ibid. (1799), Geol. Ess., 215. Primitive limestone … is said sometimes to discover a splintry fracture.
1804. Edin. Rev., III. 301. Let its fracture be splintery, and it becomes hornstein.
1884. J. E. Lee, trans. Römer’s Bone Caves of Ojcow, 2. A compact white oolitic limestone with a splintery or flatly conchoidal fracture.
2. Of stone, minerals, etc.: Liable to split into splinters; breaking or separating easily into splinters; spec. having a splintery fracture.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 11. In those places where the upper parts of the rock are of a splintry texture.
1823. W. Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale-Fishery, 405. Common calcedony, inclining to splintery quartz.
1886. Fenn, Patience Wins, 50. The stone we found here and there was slaty and splintery.
b. Of rocks, etc.: Marked by splintering; rough or jagged.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., i. The ridgy precipices … showed their splintery and rugged edges over the vapour.
1843. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. I. vii. § 5. 76. Salvator bids him stand under some contemptible fragment of splintery crag.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., xi. 194. Abounding in steep precipices and splintery peaks.
3. Of the nature of a splinter; resembling a splinter in shape or form.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 978. To prevent the seam, which forms the ceiling over the workmen’s heads, from falling down and killing them by its splintery fragments.
1880. Blackmore, Mary Anerley, III. ii. 24. There was no severe cold yet;… no splintery needles of sparkling drift.
fig. 1836. Landor, Min. Pr. Pieces, Wks. 1853, II. 457/1. I was never an admirer … of those abrupt and splintery sentences, which … sparkle only when they are broken.
Comb. 1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 192. The laths do not show splintery-looking ends.
4. Abounding in or full of splinters.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, xi. It was a large room, with a rough, splintery floor.
5. As adv. In a splintering manner. rare–1.
1784. Phil. Trans., LXXIV. 453. It … breaks more woody and splintery.
