different between compress vs shatter

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English compressen, from Old French compresser, from Late Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprim? (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + prem? (“press”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?mpr?s', IPA^(key): /k?m?p??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

compress (third-person singular simple present compresses, present participle compressing, simple past and past participle compressed)

1. (transitive) To make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.
   • June 17, 1825, Daniel Webster, Speech on the laying of the Corner Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument

     events of centuries […] compressed within the compass of a single life

   • 1810, William Melmoth (translator), Letters of Pliny

     The same strength of expression, though more compressed, runs through his historical harangues.

2. (intransitive) To be pressed together or folded by compression into a more economic, easier format.

3. (transitive) To condense into a more economic, easier format.

4. (transitive) To abridge.

5. (technology, transitive) To make digital information smaller by encoding it using fewer bits.
6. (obsolete) To embrace sexually.
   • 1727, Alexander Pope, Metamorphoses

     This Nymph compress'd by him who rules the day,
     Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey,
     Andræmon lov'd; and , bless'd in all those charms
     That pleas'd a God, succeeded to her arms

Synonyms

• (press together): compact, condense, pack, press, squash, squeeze; see also Thesaurus:compress
• (be pressed together): contract
• (condense, abridge): abridge, condense, shorten, truncate; see also Thesaurus:shorten

Antonyms

• (press together): expand
• (be pressed together): decontract
• (condense, abridge): expand, lengthen
• (make computing data smaller): uncompress

Derived terms

Related terms

• compression

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French compresse, from compresse (“to compress”), from Late Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprim? (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + prem? (“press”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?mp??s/
• (US) enPR: k?m'pr?s, IPA^(key): /?k?mp??s/

Noun

compress (plural compresses)

2. A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.

3. A machine for compressing.

Related terms

• compression

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English schateren (“to scatter, dash”), an assibilated form of Middle English scateren ("to scatter"; see scatter), from Old English scaterian, from Proto-Germanic *skat- (“to smash, scatter”). Cognate with Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”), Low German schateren, Albanian shkatërroj (“to destroy, devastate”). Doublet of scatter.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??æt.?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??æt.?/
• Rhymes: -æt?(?)
• Hyphenation: shat?ter

Verb

shatter (third-person singular simple present shatters, present participle shattering, simple past and past participle shattered)

1. (transitive) to violently break something into pieces.

2. (transitive) to destroy or disable something.
3. (intransitive) to smash, or break into tiny pieces.
4. (transitive) to dispirit or emotionally defeat
   • 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36

     Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.

   • 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News, Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41

     A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.

   • 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163

     The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
5. (obsolete) To scatter about.

Translations

Noun

shatter (countable and uncountable, plural shatters)

1. (countable, archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants

     it will fall upon the glass of the sconce, and break it into shatters

2. A (pine) needle.

   Synonym: shat (Maryland, Delaware)

   • 1834, The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs: Adapted to the Southern Section of the United States, page 421:

     My usual habit is, as soon as I get my wheat trodden out, and my corn secured in the fall, to litter my farm yard (and if my cultivation is far off, I select some warm spot near the field) with leaves and pine shatters, (preferring the former) ...

   • 1859, Samuel W. Cole, The New England Farmer, page 277:

     They are preserved in cellars, or out of doors in kilns. The method of fixing them is to raise the ground a few inches, where they are to be placed, and cover with pine shatters to the depth of six inches or more.

   • 2012, Marguerite Henry, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, Simon and Schuster (?ISBN), page 95:

     Grandpa snapped his fingers. "Consarn it all!" he sputtered. "I plumb forgot the pine shatters. Paul and Maureen, you gather some nice smelly pine shatters from off 'n the floor of the woods. Nothin' makes a better cushion for pony feet as pine shatters ..."

3. (uncountable, slang) A form of concentrated cannabis.

Translations

Anagrams

• Hatters, Threats, hatters, stareth, threats