Shrapnel
name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 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. historical, uncountable, usually
- 2 shell containing lead pellets that explodes in flight wordnet
- 3 The bullets or balls from the aforementioned type of artillery shell. historical, uncountable, usually
- 4 Any shot, fragments, or debris thrown out by an exploding shell, bomb, or landmine. uncountable, usually
- 5 Debris. broadly, figuratively, uncountable, usually
"The dog ate my sandwich, and there was shrapnel all over the place from him tearing open the bag."
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- 6 Loose change. figuratively, slang, uncountable, usually
"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"
- 1 A surname
Example
More examples"The shrapnel from an explosion is usually more dangerous than the shock wave."
Etymology
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”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.