split
pronunciation
How to pronounce split in British English:
UK [splɪt]
How to pronounce split in American English:
US [splɪt]
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- Noun:
- extending the legs at right angles to the trunks (one in front and the other in back)
- a bottle containing half the usual amount
- a promised or claimed share of loot or money
- a lengthwise crack in wood
- an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart
- a dessert of sliced fruit and ice cream covered with whipped cream and cherries and nuts
- (tenpin bowling) a divided formation of pins left standing after the first bowl
- an increase in the number of outstanding shares of a corporation without changing the shareholders' equity
- the act of rending or ripping or splitting something
- division of a group into opposing factions
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- Verb:
- separate into parts or portions
- separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
- discontinue an association or relation; go different ways
- go one's own away; move apart
- break open or apart suddenly
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- Adjective:
- being divided or separated
- having been divided; having the unity destroyed
- broken or burst apart longitudinally
- having a long rip or tear
- (especially of wood) cut or ripped longitudinally with the grain
Word Origin
- split
- split: [16] Split was borrowed from Middle Dutch splitten. This, like German spleissen ‘splice’ and English splice [16], goes back to a prehistoric base *spleid-, which may have been related to *spel-, the source of English spill.=> splice
- split (v.)
- 1580s (transitive and intransitive), not found in Middle English, probably from a Low German source such as Middle Dutch splitten, from Proto-Germanic *spl(e)it- (cognates: Danish and Frisian splitte, Old Frisian splita, German spleißen "to split"), from PIE *(s)plei- "to split, splice" (see flint). U.S. slang meaning "leave, depart" first recorded 1954. Of couples, "to separate, to divorce" from 1942. To split the difference is suggested from 1715; to split (one's) ticket in the U.S. political sense is attested from 1842. To split hairs "make too-nice distinctions" is from 1670s (split a hair). Splitting image "exact likeness" is from 1880. To split the atom is from 1909.
- split (adj.)
- 1640s, past participle adjective from split (v.). Split decision is from 1946 of court rulings, 1951 in boxing. Split shift is from 1904. Split personality first attested 1899.
- split (n.)
- 1590s, "narrow cleft, crack, fissure," from split (v.). Meaning "piece of wood formed by splitting" is from 1610s. Meaning "an act of separation, a divorce" is from 1729. From 1861 as the name of the acrobatic feat. Meaning "a drink composed of two liquors" is from 1882; that of "sweet dish of sliced fruit with ice cream" is attested from 1920, American English. Slang meaning "share of the take" is from 1889. Meaning "a draw in a double-header" is from 1920.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Rarely have wall street 's seers been so split .
- 2. But these commitments emphasise the split in the alliance .
- 3. Do the spoils need to be so unevenly split ?
- 4. How many ways can you split it ?
- 5. People often think schizophrenia is a split personality , or that we 're all axe-wielding murderers .