1. Fragments from an exploded artillery shell, mine, or bomb: There was a significant risk of injury to the horses on the battlefield because of the shrapnel from the artillery shelling.
2. An artillery shell intended to explode before impact, scattering dangerously sharp metal projectiles intended to wound and seriously harm military personnel: The shrapnel from the artillery barrage was frightening in its intent and effect.

Shrapnel is not the only danger posed by bombs. The exposure of soldiers to blast waves from explosive devices may, like the repeated blows to the head inflicted on boxers in the ring, result in traumatic brain injury which is not always immediately recognized or diagnosed by physicians.

3. Etymology: from British General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), who invented a type of exploding, fragmenting shell when he was a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery during the Peninsular War (in 1808–1814, fought by France against Great Britain, Portugal, Spanish regulars, and Spanish guerrillas in the Iberian Peninsula).

The invention consisted of a hollow cannon ball, filled with shot, which burst in mid-air; his name for it was "spherical case ammunition".