Definition of "comminuted"

The student will, however, have some idea of the minuteness of the unit which would then be wanting to complete the square, when he is informed that, if we suppose the whole globe we inhabit to be composed of sand, such that a cubic inch would contain ten millions of grains, a ten-tredecillionth of the globe would be less than the billionth part of one of these extremely minute grains, which part, could the grain be so comminuted, could never be discovered, even by the aid of the most powerful microscope.

1856, Noble Heath, A Treatise on Arithmetic, page 256

Hawaiian sand is utterly different: it is comminuted coral and algae, the broken detritus of a hundred thousand storms washed up against the land.

2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 53

Although WOF [warmed-over flavor] has generally been recognized as pertaining to cooked meat, it can also develop rapidly in raw comminuted meat when exposed to air.

1992, Bailey et al., Undesirable Flavors of Meat, Food Science and Nutrition Department, University of Missouri, in Off-Flavors in Foods and Beverages (Elsevier), p. 127