shred
/ʃrɛd
/noun (usually shreds)
1A strip of material, such as paper, cloth, or food, that has been torn, cut, or scraped from something larger: her dress was torn to shreds...
- Her heart ached as the coldness gripped her and tore the dress to pieces, only shreds of innocent cloth lingering between her forsaken fingers.
- The waves fling themselves at my feet, water torn to shreds - white ribbons thrown across the rocks.
- Rick curled his lip in disgust, slumped in a corner a body, torn to shreds by shrapnel and bullet wounds.
Synonyms
tatter, scrap, strip, ribbon, rag, snippet, snip, remnant, fragment, sliver, splinter, chip, bit, tiny bit, piece, tiny piece, wisp
1.1 [often with negative] A very small amount: we have not a shred of evidence to go on...
- There is hardly a shred of human feeling or emotion in anything he does or believes in (aside from the numerous internal political battles he has engaged in to get to where he is today).
- Mortified by the embarrassment of this mistaken identity, I log off and retire to bed early to consider whether there's any possible way to turn this ridiculous situation around with a shred of dignity.
- Idi's out of a coma, possibly blind, possibly brain-damaged, certainly in intense discomfort from renal failure, and without a shred of human dignity.
Synonyms
scrap, bit, tiny amount, speck, iota, particle, ounce, whit, jot, atom, molecule, crumb, morsel, fragment, grain, drop, hint, touch, trace, suggestion, whisper, suspicion, scintilla, spot, mite, tittle, jot or tittle, modicum;
Irish stim
informal smidgen, smidge
verb (shreds, shredding, shredded)
1 [with object] Tear or cut into shreds.The tender inside leaves can be shredded finely for tasty salads and braised red cabbage is fantastic....
- I looked closer and it ended up being that half the fan belt had shredded itself and torn off.
- The cabbage was shredded and packed in layers with salt, juniper and barberries, pepper, and spices.
Synonyms
chop finely, cut up, tear up, rip up, grate, rub into pieces, mince, mangle, chew, macerate, grind, granulate, pulverize
1.1Reduce documents to unreadable strips by feeding them into a shredder: executives have shredded key documents...
- He has also raised questions over whether e-mails were deleted or documents shredded.
- Fortunately, most firms now make a habit of shredding documents they no longer need.
- We receive a certificate to show the date that the documents were shredded.
2 [no object] (usually as noun shredding) Play a very fast, intricate style of rock lead guitar: we want to hear everything from country and western to blisteringly fast guitar shredding...
- I was impressed at how you can revive the 80's guitar shredding days without altering a thing.
- Several overlapping vocals are thrown over a punky guitar that shreds quickly over repeated cymbal crashes in the background.
- Dime was an incredible musician and person who influenced thousands of guitarists and pushed guitar shredding to a higher degree for many years.
Phrases
in shreds
tear someone/thing to shreds
Origin
Late Old English scrēad 'piece cut off', scrēadian 'trim, prune', of West Germanic origin; related to shroud.
shroud from Old English:
Late Old English scrūd meant ‘garment, clothing’ and is from a Germanic source from a base meaning ‘cut’; shred (Old English) is related. An early sense of to shroud in Middle English was ‘cover so as to protect’. Use for the sheet in which a corpse is laid out, dates from the late 16th century.