Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Wood in small pieces or splinters suitable especially for making matches.
  • noun Splinters.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Wood in any form, whether in logs, scantlings, or boards, adapted to and designed for use in the manufacture of matches.
  • noun Wood which has been sawn, or sawn and split, to the proper size for matches.
  • noun As a figure of speech, wood which has been broken or splintered into very fine pieces.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun wood in small pieces or splinters.
  • noun Wood suitable for making matchsticks.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun wood, often in the form of splinters, suitable for making matches

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun fragments of wood
  • noun wood suitable for making matchsticks
  • noun wood in small pieces or splinters

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But nothing of the kind was visible, and the spars, masts, and other wreckage which had reached the rocks had been shattered into "matchwood" by frequent gales.

    The Coxswain's Bride also, Jack Frost and Sons; and, A Double Rescue 1859

  • "My new fear was that the paddle-boxes would be stove into matchwood this actually happened to the Ostend boat that same night about 40 miles away and naked paddle wheels are rather dangerous things."

    Weatherwatch 2011

  • Her hair is cross-parted by sleep, blonde as matchwood.

    The Right Thing Robert Boswell 2011

  • The on-loan striker brushed opponents aside like they were matchwood, surged forward as unstoppably as a tidal bore, set up one goal, blasted home another.

    How Hotshot Hamish put the mockers on me at Hartlepool 2010

  • It is the point of the evening: that moment when everything is blown apart, when the stack of chairs that have been tumbled like matchwood at the back of the stage take on a meaning, while the lives of the characters are shattered and jumbled.

    One Night in November; Macbeth; Novecento Susannah Clapp 2010

  • The guns of the Thunder Child sounded through the reek, going off one after the other, and one shot splashed the water high close by the steamer, ricocheted towards the other flying ships to the north, and smashed a smack to matchwood.

    The War of The Worlds H. G. Wells 2009

  • The Orkney makes the very similar Ashford Traveller look like it was built out of matchwood, tbh.

    Haldane Orkney. Spinningfishwife 2008

  • The Orkney makes the very similar Ashford Traveller look like it was built out of matchwood, tbh.

    Archive 2008-08-01 Spinningfishwife 2008

  • The guns of the Thunder Child sounded through the reek, going off one after the other, and one shot splashed the water high close by the steamer, ricocheted towards the other flying ships to the north, and smashed a smack to matchwood.

    The War of the Worlds Herbert George 2006

  • One shot from the rifled ten-inch guns mounted along its sides and the smaller ships would be matchwood.

    Sun of Suns 2006

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