shrapnel

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Henry Shrapnel, British army officer 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.

Noun

shrapnel (uncountable)

1. a collective term for shot, fragments, or debris thrown out by an exploding shell or landmine
2. (slang) loose change

Translations

fragments and debris thrown out by an exploding device

Chinese: Mandarin: 彈片 (cmn), 弹片 (cmn) (dànpiàn), 榴霰彈 (cmn), 榴霰弹 (cmn) (liúsǎndàn), 霰彈 (cmn), 霰弹 (cmn) (sǎndàn), 子母彈 (cmn), 子母弹 (cmn) (zǐmǔdàn) Dutch: please add this translation if you can Finnish: sirpale (fi) French: shrapnel (fr) m. German: Schrapnell (de) n. Greek: θραύσμα (el) (thráfsma) n. Hungarian: repesz (hu)

Italian: schegge (it), proiettili (it) Japanese: please add this translation if you can Polish: szrapnel (pl) m. Portuguese: estilhaço (pt) Russian: шрапнель (ru) (šrapnél’) f. Spanish: metralla (es) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: şarapnel (tr) Volapük: jräpnäl (vo)

loose change — see loose change