shard Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a broken piece of a brittle artifact
    fragment; sherd.

WordNet

Shard noun
Definitions
  1. A plant; chard. Obs. Dryden.
Shard noun
Etymology
AS. sceard, properly a p. p. from the root of scearn to shear, to cut; akin to D. schaard a fragment, G. scharte a notch, Icel. skar. See Shear, and cf. Sherd.
Definitions
  1. A piece or fragment of an earthen vessel, or a like brittle substance, as the shell of an egg or snail. Shak.
    The precious dish Broke into shards of beauty on the board. E. Arnold.
  2. (Zoöl.) The hard wing case of a beetle.
    They are his shards, and he their beetle. Shak.
  3. A gap in a fence. Obs. Stanyhurst.
  4. A boundary; a division. Obs. & R. Spenser.

Webster 1913