as in chip
a small flat piece separated from a whole
found a variety of uses for the spalls left over from their stonecutting operations
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Recent Examples of spall
The curtains are made up of overlapping, three-quarter inch plates of AR500 steel encased in a layer of ballistic nylon that captures spall, the shards of metal that break off from a colliding bullet.
—
Dan Robitzski, Popular Mechanics, 8 Mar. 2018
The reports noted that numerous repairs had been made to cracks and spalls in the spillway.
—Bettina Boxall, latimes.com, 24 Apr. 2017
Dan Robitzski, Popular Mechanics, 8 Mar. 2018
The reports noted that numerous repairs had been made to cracks and spalls in the spillway.
—Bettina Boxall, latimes.com, 24 Apr. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spall
Noun
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In theory, the outside dollars from Apple (a former customer), Nvidia (a potential foundry customer), and others would allow Intel’s chip manufacturing to catch up to TSMC, which is far and away the world leader.—
Rohan Goswami,
semafor.com,
25 Sep. 2025
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Longtime teammate Busquets released the Inter Miami captain with a tremendous through ball from deep, and Messi finished with a classy chip over NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese.—
Franco Panizo,
Miami Herald,
25 Sep. 2025
Noun
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People have seen slivers in movies like Paid in Full and read conjecture online, but beneath the surface is an entire world that hasn’t been seen before.—
Ryan Gajewski,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Sep. 2025
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With two minutes left, quarterback Justin Herbert shrugged off or evaded multiple would-be tacklers, scrambled to his left and was able to throw around an oncoming defender’s shoulder pad and fit the pass into a sliver of space for a 20-yard, game-tying touchdown.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Two days later, Zeek was home with his family again, fragments of the bullet still lodged in his shoulder between a block of nerves and main blood vessel.—
Danya Gainor,
CNN Money,
28 Sep. 2025
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One of Sappho’s poem fragments also helped align the symptoms with love-sickness.—
Matthew Wills,
JSTOR Daily,
27 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Splinter after splinter flopping onto the stone threshold, tsss, tsss, hissing like a nest of vipers.—
Zuzana Říhová,
Literary Hub,
26 Sep. 2025
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Outside of these moments, the audience scatters, the conversation splinters, and the mirage vanishes.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
25 Sep. 2025
Noun
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There are other ways to slow down your eating without adding paprika or chili flakes.—
Stephanie Brown,
Verywell Health,
26 Sep. 2025
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Neither area is the rust-flakes-and-heaving-asphalt scene of 1970s memory but instead a relatively modern experience, though very much not at Six Flags scale.—
Christopher Bonanos,
Curbed,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Researchers like me carefully separate out the tiny glass shards by sifting through the dirt and using a micromanipulator, a tool that can pick up and move microscopic grains.—
The Editors,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Sep. 2025
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Instead of being deep fried, pig skins are crisped up on the pit and chopped into shards that deliver an incredible punch of smoke beneath each jaw-rattling crunch.—
Robert F. Moss,
Southern Living,
17 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Spall.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spall. Accessed 3 Oct. 2025.
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