Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To break into two or more pieces or parts; sever.
- intransitive verb To force or keep apart: synonym: separate.
- intransitive verb To form a barrier or border between.
- intransitive verb To dissolve (a connection or relationship).
- intransitive verb To become broken into parts or disunited.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To expose to or dry in the sun, as hay.
- Apart; asunder: used only in the adverbial phrase on sunder, in sunder, now reduced to asunder, apart, in which, in the fuller form, sunder assumes the aspect of a noun.
- To part; separate; keep apart; divide; sever; disunite in any manner, as by natural conditions (as of location), opening, rending, cutting, breaking, etc.
- Synonyms To disjoin, disconnect, sever, dissever, dissociate.
- To part; be separated; quit each other; be severed.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To disunite in almost any manner, either by rending, cutting, or breaking; to part; to put or keep apart; to separate; to divide; to sever
- intransitive verb rare To part; to separate.
- transitive verb Prov. Eng. To expose to the sun and wind.
- noun A separation into parts; a division or severance.
- noun into parts.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Sundry ;different . - verb transitive To
break orseparate or tobreak apart , especially with force. - verb intransitive To
part ,separate . - verb UK, dialect, dated, transitive To
expose to thesun andwind . - noun a
separation into parts; adivision orseverance
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb break apart or in two, using violence
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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“I must cleave in sunder that which has been joined.”
Episode 9: 2 What the Sage of Hinga Lum Dura Clove in Sunder « Unknowing 2010
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But he ceased not to repeat conjurations and they to call for help, till the two caskets flew in sunder, the fragments flying about, and there came forth two men, with pinioned hands saying,
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Kamakim went straight to the depressed floor of the saloon and came to the slab, under which he had buried the stolen goods and let the rod fall upon it with such violence that the marble broke in sunder and behold something glittered underneath.
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Upon this the Badawi waxed wroth and they drove at each other, shouting aloud, whilst their horses pricked their ears and raised their tails. 103 And they ceased not clashing together with such a crash that it seemed to each as if the firmament were split in sunder, and they continued to strive like two rams which butt, smiting and exchanging with their spears thrust and cut.
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The lion ran at him, but Ali of Cairo smote him between the eyes with his chopper and cut him in sunder, whilst the caravan-leader and the merchants looked on.
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Whomsoever he smote, he clove him in sunder and before his soul could depart he became a heap of ashes in the fire; whilst the two hosts of the
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As I lay wondering at this lo! it ran upon me and smiting me with its claws, rent my belly in sunder; whereupon I awoke startled and trembling.
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Then we tied a great rope round her middle and haled at it; but the rope broke in sunder, and she stirred not; and the villagers came and did the like, but could not move her from her place. 210 At last, when all means failed, we said to one of the two Shaykhs, ‘Come thou and lift her.’
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Now the badawi was bent double with the blow, so Gharib smote him with his mace and clove his forehead in sunder and he fell down dead and
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Gharib hath with him the enchanted sword of Japhet son of Noah, and whomsoever he smiteth therewith he severeth him in sunder, and with him also are two Marids from Mount Caucasus, given to him by King
brtom commented on the word sunder
"The aged sisters draw us into life: we wail, batten, sport, clip, clasp, sunder, dwindle, die: over us dead they bend."
Joyce, Ulysses, 14
January 20, 2007
bilby commented on the word sunder
"The muted, yellow papyrus left no doubt in Langdon's mind as to its age and authenticity, but excluding the inevitable fading, the document was in superb condition. Slight bleaching of the pigment. Minor sundering and cohesion of the papyrus. But all in all ... in damn fine condition."
- 'Angels and Demons', Dan Brown.
February 28, 2008