splitting

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

• adjective Very severe.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Very severe, or in some way extreme, as if it were likely to cause something to split: as, a splitting headache.
• Very rapid.
• noun An act denoted by the verb ‘split’; specifically, in harvesting tobacco, the cleaving of the stalk nearly to the base, with the purpose of ‘hanging,’ i.e. placing it astride a stick for curing: practised with heavy export tobacco. For other methods see pegging, 6, and spearing, 1.

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

• noun An instance where something splits.
• noun psychology A division in the mind, or affecting one's sense of self.
• noun chemistry The cleavage of a covalent bond.
• adjective Resembling the sound of something being split or ripped.
• adjective Severe.
• verb Present participle of split.

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

• adjective resembling a sound of violent tearing as of something ripped apart or lightning splitting a tree