Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Shard

Shard (shard) , noun

A plant; chard. [Obsolete] — Dryden

Shard (shard) , noun

[Anglo-Saxon sceard, properly a p. p. from the root of scearn to shear, to cut; akin to Dutch schaard a fragment, German scharte a notch, Icelandic skare. See Shear, and compare Sherd.]

1.
A piece or fragment of an earthen vessel, or a like brittle substance, as the shell of an egg or snail. — Shakespeare
The precious dish Broke into shards of beauty on the board. — E. Arnold
2.
(Zoology) The hard wing case of a beetle.
They are his shards, and he their beetle. — Shakespeare
3.
A gap in a fence. [Obsolete] — Stanyhurst
4.
A boundary; a division. [Obsolete & Rare] — Spenser