▪ I. fragment, n.
(ˈfrægmənt)
[a. F. fragment (16th c.) or ad. L. fragment-um (f. frangĕre to break).]
1. A part broken off or otherwise detached from a whole; a broken piece; a (comparatively) small detached portion of anything.
| 1583 Hollyband Campo di Fior 75 They promised me to bring me..some of the leavinges, or fragmentes [of a feast]. 1611 Bible John vi. 13. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vi. 280 The valley..now filled up with fragments of old walles. 1704 Newton Optics ii. iii. v. 55 If a thin'd or plated Body..should be..broken into fragments of the same thickness with the plate. 1716 Pope Iliad viii. 493 Their Car in Fragments scatter'd o'er the Sky. 1807–26 S. Cooper First Lines Surg. (ed. 5) 155 Extracting..the fragments of bone. 1814 Scott Wav. xvi, A mere precipice, with here and there a projecting fragment of granite. 1848 W. H. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. x. (1879) 221 Fragments of old pottery. |
2. transf. and fig. A detached, isolated, or incomplete part; a (comparatively) small portion of anything; a part remaining or still preserved when the whole is lost or destroyed.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xix, At that tyme Idolatry was nat clerely extincte, but diuers fragmentes therof remained in euery region. 1571 Digges Pantom. iii. vi. Q iij b, Howe fragmentes or partes of a Globe are measured. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 399 Where should he haue this Gold? It is some poore Fragment, some slender Ort of his remainder. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (ed. 3) III. 109 However irregular and desultory his talk, there is method in the fragments. 1852 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xix. (1866) 318 Fragments of truth torn out of connection. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 100 This fragment of the County of Lincoln [the isle of Axholme]. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 189 Thegns of the shire who retained some small fragments of their property. |
b. An extant portion of a writing or composition which as a whole is lost; also, a portion of a work left uncompleted by its author; hence, a part of any unfinished whole or uncompleted design.
| 1595–6 Carew in Shaks. C. Praise 20 Shakespeare and Marlows fragment. 1628 Earle Microcosm., Critic (Arb.) 56 He conuerses much in fragments and Desunt multa's. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. ii. §11 The fragments of Manetho in Eusebius. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 333 ¶8 Claudian in his Fragment upon the Gyants War. a 1748 Watts Improv. Mind i. xx. (1801) 183 Cowley, in his unfinished fragment of the Davideis. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 191 The ‘New Atlantis’ is only a fragment. |
† c. applied to a person as a term of contempt.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 9 From whence, Fragment? 1607 ― Cor. i. i. 226 Go get you home, you Fragments. |
† 3. = fraction 5. Obs. rare.
| 1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 41 The next sort..are Fractions, sometime called Fragments. Ibid. 60 If 15/64 be divided by any of the three Fragments. |
▪ II. fragment, v.
(ˈfrægmənt, frægˈmɛnt)
[f. the n.]
trans. and intr. To break or separate into fragments.
| 1818 Keats Endymion iii. 845 For what poor mortals fragment up, as mere As marble was there lavish. 1901 H. McIntosh Is Christ Infallible? i. iii. 76 They vainly dream that they can fragment and vivisect the Spirit's embodiment and environment of Christ's teaching. 1919 Proc. Class. Assoc. 27 Specialism..has fragmented the specialities themselves in a way that makes the outlook hazardous. 1961 Time 7 July 30 The Revolutionary Council..was fragmenting in despair. |