From Biology-Online Dictionary | Biology-Online Dictionary


A plant; chard.

1. A piece or fragment of an earthen vessel, or a like brittle substance, as the shell of an egg or snail. The precious dish broke into shards of beauty on the board. (E. Arnold)

2. (Science: zoology) The hard wing case of a beetle. They are his shards, and he their beetle. (Shak)

3. A gap in a fence.

4. A boundary; a division.

Origin: AS. Sceard, properly a p. P. From the root of scearn to shear, to cut; akin to D. Schaard a fragment, G. Scharte a notch, Icel. Skar. See Shear, and cf. Sherd

Alternative forms: sheard, and sherd.