Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SHAT'TER, v.t. [D. schateren, to crack, to make a great noise. This word seems to be allied to scatter and to scath, waste. The sense is to force or drive apart.]

1. To break at once into many pieces; to dash, burst, rend or part by violence into fragments; as, explosion shatters a rock or a bomb; lightning shatters the sturdy oak; steam shatters a boiler; a monarchy is shattered by revolt. – Locke.
2. To rend; to crack; to split; to rive into splinters.
3. To dissipate; to make incapable of close and continued application; as, a man of shattered humor. – Norris.
4. To disorder; to derange; to render delirious; as, to shatter the brain. The man seems to be shattered in his intellect.