Associations to the word «Shrapnel»

Wiktionary

SHRAPNEL, noun. (historical) An anti-personnel artillery shell used in WWI which carries a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejects them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.
SHRAPNEL, noun. A collective term for shot, fragments, or debris thrown out by an exploding shell or landmine.
SHRAPNEL, noun. (slang) Loose change.
SHRAPNEL, noun. Debris.

Dictionary definition

SHRAPNEL, noun. Shell containing lead pellets that explodes in flight.

Wise words

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Alexander Pope