sliver

What it means

1. A long piece cut or rent off; a sharp, slender fragment.

   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).

   2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 27, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, page 270

   1 more example

   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.

   1972, Félix Martí-Ibáñez, The mirror of souls, and other essays, page 339

   Synonyms: shard, slice, splinter

   1. CanadaEssexKentSussex; Upper Midwestern US; Sussex; Upper Midwestern USSpecifically, a splinter caught under the skin.

      Synonyms: shard, slice, splinter, spelk, spill

2. 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.

In a sentence

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.

1972, Félix Martí-Ibáñez, The mirror of souls, and other essays, page 339

Where it comes from

1. Old Englishslīfan
2. Middle Englishsliven“to cut, cleave, split”
3. Middle Englishslivere, sliver
4. Englishsliver

From Middle English slivere, sliver from Middle English sliven (“to cut, cleave, split”), from Old English slīfan (as in tōslīfan (“to split, split up”)).