name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
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"The dog ate my sandwich, and there was shrapnel all over the place from him tearing open the bag."
"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"
"The shrapnel from an explosion is usually more dangerous than the shock wave."
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.
Common synonyms include: ball, bar shot, bird shot, buckshot, bullet, cannon shot.
The shrapnel from an explosion is usually more dangerous than the shock wave.
Pronounced /ˈʃɹæpnəl/.
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.
From French Charbonnel, from charbon (“coal, charcoal”).