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shrapnel
(redirected from Shrapnell)

   Also found in: Wikipedia 1.39 sec.

shrapnel

Originally, a type of projectile invented by the British artillery officer Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), containing small spherical bullets and an explosive charge to scatter the shot and fragments of the shell casing. A time fuse set off the explosive charge late in the shell's flight, when it was near opposing troops. The resulting hail of high-velocity debris was often lethal; it caused most of the artillery-inflicted wounds in World War I. In World War II a high-explosive bursting charge that fragmented the shell's iron casing made shrapnel balls unnecessary; the term shrapnel came to be used for the shell-casing fragments.


shrapnel [′shrap·nəl]
(ordnance)
Small lead or steel balls contained in a shrapnel case which is fired from an artillery piece; the balls are projected in a forward direction upon the functioning of the fuse.


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The Shrapnell membrane was intact, and the chorda tympani was in its normal position.
Relatedly, denial, often in the form of detachment of the seriousness of cancer diagnosis, was also related to lower mood disturbance and emotional distress (Mishel & Sorenson, 1991; Watson, Greer, Blake, & Shrapnell, 1984).
 
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