n. A piece, as of wood, roughly or irregularly broken, rent, or cut off or out, generally lengthwise or with the grain; a splinter: as, to get a sliver under one's fingernail; the lightning tore off great slivers of bark; hence, any fragment; a small bit.n. In spinning, a continuous strand of wool, cotton, or other fiber, in a loose untwisted condition, ready for slubbing or roving.n. A small wooden instrument used in spinning yarn.n. The side of a small fish cut off in one piece from head to tail, to be used as bait; a sort of kibblings.n. A very fine edge left at the end of a piece of timber.n. plural The loose breeches or slops of the early part of the seventeenth century.To cut or divide into long thin pieces, or into very small pieces; cut or rend lengthwise; splinter; break or tear off.To cut each side of (a fish) away in one piece from head to tail; take two slivers from. See sliver, n., 4.To split; become split.