sliver
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English
Etymology
From Middle English slivere, sliver from Middle English sliven (“to cut, cleave, split”), from Old English slīfan (as in tōslīfan (“to split, split up”)).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈslɪv.ə(ɹ)/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈslɪv.ɚ/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪvə(ɹ)
Noun
sliver (plural slivers)
- A long piece cut or rent off; a sharp, slender fragment.
- 2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 27, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, page 270:
- A sliver of bone has punctured a lung, and a small surgical operation was needed to remove it (would he like to keep the bone as a memento?--it is in a phial by his bedside).
- A strand, or slender roll, of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which precedes spinning.
- (fishing) Bait made of pieces of small fish.
- (US, New York) A narrow high-rise apartment building.
- A small amount of something; a drop in the bucket; a shred.
- Synonyms: bit, ounce; see also Thesaurus:modicum
Derived terms
Translations
long piece cut or rent off; a sharp, slender fragment
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strand or slender roll of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state
bait made of pieces of small fish
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New York: narrow high-rise apartment building
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See also
Verb
sliver (third-person singular simple present slivers, present participle slivering, simple past and past participle slivered)
- (transitive) To cut or divide into long, thin pieces, or into very small pieces; to cut or rend lengthwise; to slit.
- to sliver wood
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- slips of yew,
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse
- 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:
- They'll sliver thee like a turnip.