English

Noun

shred ‎(plural shreds)

1. A long, narrow piece cut or torn off; a strip.
   • Francis Bacon

     shreds of tanned leather

2. In general, a fragment; a piece; a particle; a very small amount.

   There isn't a shred of evidence to support his claims.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:modicum.

Related terms

• screed

Translations

Verb

shred ‎(third-person singular simple present shreds, present participle shredding, simple past shredded, past participle shredded or shred)

1. To cut or tear into narrow and long pieces or strips.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

   • 1902, William Carew Hazlitt, Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine:

     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, ...

2. (obsolete, transitive) To lop; to prune; to trim.
3. (snowboarding) To ride aggressively.
4. (bodybuilding) To drop fat and water weight before a competition.
5. (music, slang) To play very fast (especially guitar solos in rock and metal genres).

Derived terms

• shredder

Translations

References

1. ↑ “Spotlight on... Screed” Take Our Word For It, Issue 1, July 20, 1998

Anagrams

• herds, sherd