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shrapnel

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shrap⋅nel

  [shrap-nl]
–noun
1. Military.
a. a hollow projectile containing bullets or the like and a bursting charge, designed to explode before reaching the target, and to set free a shower of missiles.
b. such projectiles collectively.
2. shell fragments.
Use shrapnel in a Sentence
Origin:
1800–10; named after Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), English army officer, its inventor
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
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shrap·nel   (shrāp'nəl)   
n.   pl. shrapnel

  1. Fragments from an exploded artillery shell, mine, or bomb.

    1. A 19th-century artillery shell containing metal balls, designed to explode in the air above enemy troops.

    2. The metal balls in such a weapon.


[After Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), British army officer.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
shrapnel

  1. n.
    a few small coins left as a tip. : He just toked me a few bits of schrapnel!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

shrapnel 
1806, from Gen. Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), who invented a type of exploding, fragmenting shell when he was a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery during the Peninsular War. The invention consisted of a hollow cannon ball, filled with shot, which burst in mid-air; his name for it was spherical case ammunition. Sense of "shell fragments" is first recorded 1940. The surname is attested from 13c., and is believed to be a metathesized form of Charbonnel, a dim. form of O.Fr. charbon "charcoal," in ref. to complexion, hair color, or some other quality.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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