splinter off

splinter off (from something)

1. To tear, chip, or break off from a larger piece or thing. Wood began splintering off around the bullet holes. The impact has caused a piece of bone to splinter off from your femur, and it will unfortunately require surgery to repair.
2. To separate or depart from a larger group with divergent ideas, ideology, goals, plans, etc. The group of radicals splintered off from the orthodox church and formed a new ministry based on religious extremism. We decided to splinter off from the main group so that we could focus our attention onto the matters we thought most important.
See also: off, splinter

splinter off (of) (something)

To tear, chip, or break off of a larger piece or thing. Wood began splintering off around the bullet holes. The impact has caused a piece of bone to splinter off of your femur, and it will unfortunately require surgery to repair.
See also: off, splinter
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

splinter off (of) (something)

 and splinter off (from something)
[for a bit of something] to tear off or separate from something. (Of is usually retained before pronouns.) A piece of wood splintered off of the oar and dropped into the water. A tiny bit splintered off and stuck in my hand.
See also: off, splinter
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • (I've) got to take off
  • (Now) where was I?
  • be well off for (something)
  • be well off for something
  • be off for (something)
  • be off for sth
  • bounce off
  • bounce off (of) (someone or something)
  • bounce something off of someone
  • bounce something off someone
References in periodicals archive
"I think also on both the Tory and Labour sides, there may well be MPs that splinter off and they are not going to leap immediately into another political party."
A small reception area greets guests, who can splinter off to the large yoga studio or into the restaurant area.
They splinter off through replacement lock Dominic Bird with another Racing forward close behind him.
Besides, PML-N had been drifting away from religious parties for a while because they tend to splinter off into alliances near elections.
"It can actually bring people together or it can allow people to splinter off into other groups.
Baghdadi, whose real name is Ibrahim al-Samarrai, is responsible for turning ISIS into a formidable force in northern Iraq and parts of Syria after helping the group splinter off from al Qaeda. Baghdadi is believed to be 45 years old and from Samarra, located north of Baghdad.
Most hardline circles among the group in Syria have begun to splinter off, he noted.
For now, Rutledge is looking to bring OTT services into the cable bundle, rather than splinter off its own untethered video product.
This will be the third party to splinter off from the BSP, after government ally ABV of ex-President Georgi Parvanov and Movement 21 of Tatyana Doncheva.
The action intensifies in The Elf Wars as the elf factions splinter off to ally with Santa and his North-Pole guardians, or join the rebellious Rudolph.
We circle a much smaller roundabout, unsure which exit to take, we become more straggled, and eventually we splinter off with different groups going in various directions.
Sea-spray sonics and unearthly keyboard squiggles splinter off into endless directions, sometimes finding their way around impossibly cylindrical basslines.
There has been speculation that some workers unions will splinter off from the G.L.C..
The tolerance is there, while a wood like pine would splinter off if you tried that.
The panel will meet every month and it is expected members will splinter off into sub-groups, depending on their expertise, before reporting back to the Bishop of Liverpool, who is heading the group.