shrapnel

See also: Shrapnel

English

Etymology

From Shrapnel. Named after British army officer Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842) who invented an anti-personnel shell that transported a large number of bullets to the target before releasing them, at a far greater distance than rifles could fire the bullets individually. The surname is likely a metathesized form of Charbonnel, a diminutive of Old French charbon (“charcoal”) in reference to hair color, complexion, or the like.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɹæpnəl/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æpnəl

Noun

shrapnel (usually uncountable, plural shrapnels)

2. (military, historical) An anti-personnel artillery shell used in World War I which carries a large number of individual bullets or balls close to the target and then ejects them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.

   Hypernyms: shell, cartridge

   Coordinate term: canister shot

4. (military, historical) The bullets or balls from the aforementioned type of artillery shell.

   Hypernym: shot

   Coordinate term: canister shot

6. (military) Any shot, fragments, or debris thrown out by an exploding shell, bomb, or landmine.
8. (by extension, figurative) Debris.

   The dog ate my sandwich, and there was shrapnel all over the place from him tearing open the bag.

10. (slang, figurative) Loose change.
    • 2004, “Fit But You Know It”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), A Grand Don't Come For Free, performed by The Streets:

      I was waiting in the queue, looking at the board / Wondering whether to have a burger or chips / Or what the shrapnel in my back pocket could afford

Derived terms

• pocket shrapnel

Translations

artillery shell

Belarusian: шрапнэ́ль f (šrapnélʹ) Bulgarian: шрапне́л m (šrapnél) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: srapnelli (fi) French: shrapnel (fr) m German: Schrapnell (de) n Hindi: गंजगोला (hi) m (gañjgolā) Hungarian: please add this translation if you can Italian: bomba antiuomo m Japanese: please add this translation if you can Macedonian: шрапнел m (šrapnel) Ottoman Turkish: صالقم (salkım) Persian: Iranian Persian: شِراپْنِل (šerâpnel) Polish: szrapnel (pl) m Romanian: șrapnel (ro) n Russian: шрапне́ль (ru) f (šrapnɛ́lʹ) Tajik: шрапнел (šrapnel) Thai: ลูกแตก Ukrainian: шрапне́ль f (šrapnélʹ)

fragments and debris thrown out by an exploding device

Afrikaans: skrapnel Albanian: shrapnel (sq) m Arabic: شَظَايَا (ar) f pl (šaẓāyā) Armenian: շրապնել (hy) (šrapnel), կոտորակառումբ (kotorakaṙumb) Azerbaijani: şrapnel Belarusian: шрапнэ́ль f (šrapnélʹ) Bulgarian: шрапне́л m (šrapnél) Chinese: Mandarin: 彈片 / 弹片 (zh) (dànpiàn), 榴霰彈 / 榴霰弹 (zh) (liúxiàndàn), 霰彈 / 霰弹 (zh) (xiàndàn), 子母彈 / 子母弹 (zh) (zǐmǔdàn) Czech: šrapnel m Dutch: granaatscherven (nl) pl or f Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: šrapnell Finnish: sirpaleet (fi) pl French: shrapnel (fr) m Galician: metralla f Georgian: შრაპნელი (šraṗneli) German: Schrapnell (de) n, Granatsplitter (de) m Greek: θραύσμα (el) n (thráfsma), μύδρος (el) m (mýdros) Hungarian: repesz (hu) Italian: schegge (it), proiettili (it), scheggia di bomba Japanese: 榴散弾 (ja) (りゅうさんだん, ryūsandan), 榴霰弾 (りゅうさんだん, ryūsandan) Kazakh: шрапнель (şrapnel) Korean: 유산탄(榴散彈) (yusantan), 류산탄(榴散彈) (ryusantan) (North Korea) Kyrgyz: шрапнель (ky) (şrapnel) Latvian: šrapnelis m Lithuanian: šrapnelis m Macedonian: шрапнел m (šrapnel) Malay: serpihan peluru, serpihan bom Maori: matā korara Persian: Iranian Persian: تَرْکَش (fa) (tarkaš), تَرْکِش (fa) (tarkeš) Polish: szrapnel (pl) m Portuguese: estilhaço (pt) Romanian: șrapnel (ro) n Russian: шрапне́ль (ru) f (šrapnɛ́lʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: шра̀пнел m Roman: šràpnel (sh) m Slovak: šrapnel (sk) m Slovene: šrapnel m Spanish: shrapnel, metralla (es) f, esquirlas f pl Swedish: splitter (sv) Tajik: шрапнел (šrapnel) Thai: สะเก็ด (th) (sà-gèt), สะเก็ดระเบิด Turkish: şarapnel (tr) Turkmen: şrapnel Ukrainian: шрапне́ль f (šrapnélʹ) Uyghur: شراپنېل (shrapnël) Uzbek: shrapnel (uz) Vietnamese: trái phá (vi), đạn trái phá Volapük: jräpnäl

loose change — see loose change

Further reading

• shrapnel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Lanphers

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃʁap.nɛl/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

shrapnel m (plural shrapnels)

1. shrapnel

Further reading

• “shrapnel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.