different between shatter vs quicken

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

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kw?k?n/
• Rhymes: -?k?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English quikenen, equivalent to quick +? -en. Cognate Danish kvikne (“to quicken, revive”), Swedish kvickna (“to revive”), Icelandic kvikna (“to turn on, ignite”).

Verb

quicken (third-person singular simple present quickens, present participle quickening, simple past and past participle quickened)

1. (transitive, literary) To give life to; to animate, make alive, revive. [from 14thc.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XVII:

     Whosoever will goo about to save his lyfe, shall loose it: And whosoever shall loose his life, shall quycken it.

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 1

     The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, / And makes my labours pleasures

   • Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that quickens the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize.

2. (intransitive, literary) To come back to life, receive life. [from 14th c.]
3. (intransitive) To take on a state of activity or vigour comparable to life; to be roused, excited. [from 15th c.]
4. (intransitive) Of a pregnant woman: to first feel the movements of the foetus, or reach the stage of pregnancy at which this takes place; of a foetus: to begin to move. [from 16th c.]
   • 2013, Hilary Mantel, ‘Royal Bodies’, London Review of Books, 35.IV:

     Royal pregnancies were not announced in those days; the news generally crept out, and public anticipation was aroused only when the child quickened.

5. (transitive) To make quicker; to hasten, speed up. [from 17thc.]
   • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam 2011, p.47:

     That day Arya quickened their pace, keeping the horses to a trot as long as she dared, and sometimes spurring to a gallop when she spied a flat stretch of field before them.

6. (intransitive) To become faster. [from 17thc.]

   • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
7. (shipbuilding) To shorten the radius of (a curve); to make (a curve) sharper.

Translations

Etymology 2

Apparently from quick, with uncertain final element.

Noun

quicken (plural quickens)

1. (now chiefly Northern England) The European rowan, Sorbus aucuparia. [from 15th c.]
   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p, 104:

     Miss Wannop moved off down the path: it was only suited for Indian file, and had on the left hand a ten-foot, untrimmed quicken hedge, the hawthorn blossoms just beginning to blacken […].

Synonyms

• quickbeam

See also

• quickens

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

quicken

1. inflection of quick:
   1. strong genitive masculine/neuter singular
   2. weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular
   3. strong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular
   4. strong dative plural
   5. weak/mixed all-case plural

Old Dutch

Etymology

From quic +? -en.

Verb

quicken

1. to come to life

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: quicken

Further reading

• “kwikken”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012