Sliver

Definitions

1. A long piece cut or rent off; a sharp, slender fragment.
2. Specifically, a splinter caught under the skin.
   Canada, Essex, Kent
3. A strand, or slender roll, of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which precedes spinning.
4. Bait made of pieces of small fish.
5. A narrow high-rise apartment building.
   New-York, US
6. A small amount of something; a drop in the bucket; a shred.

Equivalents

Examples

“This is the tasting ritual, the lay⟳ Eucharist of cheese. The buyer squeezes the sliver of cheese between his fingers to test⟳ its consistency, sniffs it, and then tastes it as delicately as if it were the most subtle caviar.”

“A sliver of bone has punctured a lung, and a small surgical operation was needed to remove⟳ it (would he like⟳ to keep⟳ the bone as a memento?--it is in a phial by his bedside).”

CEFR level