Hypertext Webster Gateway: "shard"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Shard \Shard\ (sh[aum]rd), n.
A plant; chard. [Obs.] --Dryden.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Shard \Shard\, n. [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[eth]. See {Shear}, and cf.
{Sherd}.] [Written also {sheard}, and {sherd}.]
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. (Zo["o]l.) 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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
shard
n : a broken piece of a brittle artifact [syn: {sherd}, {fragment}]
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