Shrapnel is fragments of metal flung out by an exploding shell. A shrapnel wound, hit by shrapnel, shrapnel in his leg.
Strictly the word is misused: Shrapnel's shell scattered balls it carried, and what modern explosions throw is casing fragments. The distinction survives only among gunners. British slang also uses shrapnel for a pocketful of small change.
1nounshrapnelFragments of metal flung out by an exploding shell.
“The soldier was wounded in the leg by shrapnel from an exploding shell.”
shrapnel is a fragment.
Named after Henry Shrapnel, the British officer who designed a shell packed with musket balls in the 1780s.
Built from
From Shrapnel. named after Henry Shrapnel 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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA