chip, fleck, scrap, bit, flake - a small fragment of something broken off from the whole; "a bit of rock caught him in the eye"

brickbat - a fragment of brick used as a weapon

cinder, clinker - a fragment of incombustible matter left after a wood or coal or charcoal fire

clast - (geology) a constituent fragment of a clastic rock

ember, coal - a hot glowing or smouldering fragment of wood or coal left from a fire

filing - a fragment rubbed off by the use of a file

paring, shaving, sliver - a thin fragment or slice (especially of wood) that has been shaved from something

piece, part - a portion of a natural object; "they analyzed the river into three parts"; "he needed a piece of granite"

restriction fragment - the fragment of DNA that is produced by cleaving DNA with a restriction enzyme

scraping - (usually plural) a fragment scraped off of something and collected; "they collected blood scrapings for analysis"

spall, spawl - a fragment broken off from the edge or face of stone or ore and having at least one thin edge; "a truck bearing a mound of blue spalls"

spark - a small fragment of a burning substance thrown out by burning material or by friction

piece - a separate part of a whole; "an important piece of the evidence"

potsherd - a shard of pottery

piece - an artistic or literary composition; "he wrote an interesting piece on Iran"; "the children acted out a comic piece to amuse the guests"

snatch, bit - a small fragment; "overheard snatches of their conversation"

atomise, atomize - break up into small particles; "the fine powder had been atomized by air"

comminute, bray, grind, mash, crunch - reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or abrading; "grind the spices in a mortar"; "mash the garlic"

pound - break down and crush by beating, as with a pestle; "pound the roots with a heavy flat stone"

come apart, break, split up, fall apart, separate - become separated into pieces or fragments; "The figurine broke"; "The freshly baked loaf fell apart"

sunder - break apart or in two, using violence

sliver, splinter - break up into splinters or slivers; "The wood splintered"

rag - break into lumps before sorting; "rag ore"

crumb - break into crumbs

brecciate - break into breccia; "brecciate rock"

crush - break into small pieces; "The car crushed the toy"

grind, grate - make a grating or grinding sound by rubbing together; "grate one's teeth in anger"