Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tiny fragments, atoms; rarely in sing.; esp. in phr. smashed to smithereens, blow/break/knock/split to/into smithereens, to shatter into fragments; all to smithereens, smashed to pieces; often in fig. use.

1810		Kentish Wkly Post 17 Aug. 2/4: If you don’t be off directly [...] we will break your carriage in smithereens .
1827		Yorks. Gaz. 1 Dec. 3/3: He took a firmer grip of Obadiah’s collar [...] threatening to knock him into smithereens.
1829		G. Griffin Collegians II 157: A body would tink it hardly safe to stand here under ’em, in dread dey’d come tumblin’ down, may be, an’ make smiddereens of him, bless de mark! Would'nt he now, master Hardress ?
1829		Dublin Morn. Register 21 Aug. 3/3: My beautiful bow window he has knocked into smithereens.
1834		N. Ames ‘Morton’ An Old Sailor’s Yarns 217: Why, d--n it, the very first sea would [...] knock the whole thunderin’ starnframe into smithereens.
1837		‘The Devil and Johnny Dixon’ in Bentley’s Misc. Mar. 259: Magan [...] smashed the windows into smithereens.
1841		‘A Lamentation For Nan’s Sore Throat’ Dublin Comic Songster 248: I’d split the lumps to smithereens, with great big metal sledges, Nan.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 84: No, sir, we nivir had as much as a smithereen to pay one.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature I 105: He has dashed two carriages all to shivereens. [Ibid.] 362 : By the piper that played before Moses, I’ll knock it all to smithereens.
1861		G. Meredith Evan Harrington I 136: Gad, you blow us up out of the House. What would you do in? Smithereens, I think!
1865		‘Artemus Ward’ ‘Among the Fenians’ in Complete Works 314: The unmitigated blackguards and miserable spalpeens who raised the standard of revolt against the brave and gallant O’Mahony are knocked into the most infinitesimal smithereens.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 73: But ’tis on’y the mercy uv God, Miss [...] that he don’t make smithereens uv himself.
1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 88: ‘[B]e the rock o’ Cashel I’ll make smithereens av that hid av yours’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Sept. 9/3: And when he came back about ten, and remarked that Joe had been fairly knocking the kingdom of heaven into smithereens, the missus would smile approvingly, and say, ‘How shocking, to be sure!’.
1889		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 9 Nov. 3/3: [A]n officer of ihe law swooped down upon them [...] and yanked Albert [...] to the town lock-up.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 32: We are able [...] to blow the British or Russian navy into smithereens.
1908		L. Doyle Ballygullion 213: She up wi’ the whip an’ knocked it intil smithereens.
1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6/4: He devised an ingenious plan, which being a mere subterfuge has now been knocked to smithereens.
1914		‘Ian Hay’ Lighter Side of School Life 117: After we have been at work ten minutes or so the thing will go off and blow the whole place to smithereens.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 361: Then you have a beautiful calm without a cloud, smooth sea, placid, crew and cargo in smithereens, Davy Jones’ locker.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 263: He’ll dive under yer boat and smash it all to flindereens.
1937		J. Betjeman ‘Slough’ in Coll. Poems (1958) 21: Come, bombs, and blow to smithereens / Those air-conditioned, bright canteens.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 25: The tank’s blown to smithereens.
1959		M. Richler Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 10: He felt a plunk on the back of his neck as the snowball smashed to smithereens.
1961		F. O’Connor An Only Child (1970) 64: The kind, bookish man she finally married was not the sort to make smithereens of anyone.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 74: They saw it rising, in smithereens.
1987		M. Bail Holden’s Performance (1989) 256: A tank in one of the nation’s petrol stations had exploded, blowing the whole place to smithereens.
1993		S. McAughtry Touch and Go 50: ‘You were a cheeky bastard with brains,’ she said. ‘Christ, I loved you to smithereens, the way you stood up to the teachers.’.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 84: If he had turned into smithereens on the motorway back to London, every memory would have been fighting for space.
2018		Philadelphia Dly News (PA) 30 Mar. 31/3: Rage cages have taken off [...] 96.37 percent of the people polled would pay to ‘smash stuff to smithereens’.