Shred
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ʃɹɛd/
- Rhymes: -ɛd
Origin
Old English screade (from which also screed
“Spotlight on... Screed†Take Our Word For It, Issue 1, July 20, 1998
), cognate with German Schrot ("small shot") and Old Norse skrydda ("shrivelled skin"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreu ("cutting tool"), extended form of *(s)ker- ("to cut").
Full definition of shred
Noun
shred
(plural shreds)- A long, narrow piece cut or torn off; a strip.
- Francis Baconshreds of tanned leather
- In general, a fragment; a piece; a particle; a very small amount.There isn't a shred of evidence to support his claims.
Synonyms
- See also .
Related terms
Verb
- To cut or tear into narrow and long pieces or strips.
- 1902, William Carew Hazlitt, S:Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine/Cookery Books, part 2, Take a little grated bread, some beef-suet, yolks of hard eggs, three anchovies, a bit of an onion, salt and pepper, thyme and winter-savoury, twelve oysters, some nutmeg grated; mix all these together, and shred them very fine, and work them up with raw eggs like a paste, ...
- (obsolete, transitive) To lop; to prune; to trim.
- (snowboarding) To ride aggressively.
- (bodybuilding) To drop fat and water weight before a competition.
- (music, slang) To play very fast (especially guitar solos in rock and metal genres).