different between overcome vs shatter

English

Etymology

From Middle English overcomen, from Old English ofercuman (“to overcome, subdue, compel, conquer, obtain, attain, reach, overtake”), corresponding to over- +? come. Cognate with Dutch overkomen (“to overcome”), German überkommen (“to overcome”), Danish overkomme (“to overcome”), Swedish överkomma (“to overcome”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???v??k?m/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?o?v???k?m/

Verb

overcome (third-person singular simple present overcomes, present participle overcoming, simple past overcame, past participle overcome)

1. (transitive) To surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of.

   to overcome enemies in battle

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, Ch. 4:

     By and by fumes of brandy began to fill the air, and climb to where I lay, overcoming the mouldy smell of decayed wood and the dampness of the green walls.

2. (transitive) To win or prevail in some sort of battle, contest, etc.
3. To come or pass over; to spread over.
4. To overflow; to surcharge.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of J. Philips to this entry?)

Translations

Noun

overcome (plural overcomes)

1. (Scotland) The burden or recurring theme in a song.
2. (Scotland) A surplus.

References

• overcome in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• overcome in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• come over, come-over, comeover

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