shred
Americannoun
-
shreds
plural
-
a piece cut or torn off, especially in a narrow strip.
-
a bit; scrap.
We haven't got a shred of evidence.
verb (used with object)
-
shreds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shredded,
past participle, past
-
shred,
past participle
-
shredding
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
shreds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shredded,
past participle, past
-
shred,
past participle
-
shredding
present participle
-
to be cut up, torn, etc..
The blouse had shredded in the wash.
-
Slang. to snowboard, skateboard, surf, or ski in a highly skilled or showily spectacular manner.
I bought a new action camera that I can mount to my helmet—stay tuned for rad videos of me shredding when I hit the slopes next weekend.
-
Slang. to play guitar very quickly with specific picking techniques, as during an electric guitar solo.
Fans in the mosh pit go wild when Eddie shreds on lead guitar.
noun
-
a long narrow strip or fragment torn or cut off
-
a very small piece or amount; scrap
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shredsimple
-
shredssimple
-
have shredperfect
-
have shreddedperfect
-
has shredperfect
-
has shreddedperfect
-
am shreddingprogressive
-
are shreddingprogressive
-
is shreddingprogressive
-
have been shreddingperfect progressive
-
has been shreddingperfect progressive
Past
-
shreddedsimple
-
had shredperfect
-
had shreddedperfect
-
was shreddingprogressive
-
were shreddingprogressive
-
had been shreddingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shred
First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun shrede, schrede, shredd, Old English scrēade, scrēad “a cutting, a scrap”; cognate with Old Norse skrjōthr “worn-out book,” German Schrot “chips”; Middle English verb schreden “to chop, cut up,” Old English scrēadian “to pare, trim, prune (trees)”; akin to shroud; cf. screed
Vocabulary lists containing shred
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Once the chicken is cooked, I pull it out to shred later, while the vegetables underneath — softened in chicken fat, lemon and all those browned juices — become the base of the soup.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
Even if you don’t shred waves, being in the ocean can promote healing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
"If they have even a shred of honour, the first thing they should do would be to stop the negotiations," he said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Those who wrote to her “often clung to every possible shred of plausible deniability.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
I feel like my skin is coated with crushed glass, ready to shred me to smithereens if I dare close my eyes and drop my guard.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
Its final shreds of linen are the blank page between the old nation and the new.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
“I was always amazed at how she tore delicate shreds of meat from her catch and then so tenderly fed her chicks,” said Long Beach resident Erica Motamed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Everybody’s scrambling to find any facts about the guy, finding out where he studied, what he said, and not finding out very much at all, really grasping at small shreds of detail.
From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2026
In Dublin last year, not even Dupont's withdrawal after 30 minutes could stop a rampant French side from ripping Ireland to shreds with 34 unanswered second-half points.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026
Camille looks like she wants to rip her own postcard to shreds, but I grab her hands.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
“There is everything in the perfect bite,” Moore said of the vaunted marriage of ground beef, shredded cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and rich sour cream in a corn shell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
On Sphere’s escalators, grey-bearded lifers hugged in shredded battle jackets; tween girls in “Master of Puppets” hoodies drummed along to every fill; accents came from eastern Europe, Latin America and all the world over.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
Halkias pointed to the fast food chain’s recent adoption of shredded lettuce on its chicken sandwiches as a cost-slashing maneuver typical of private equity-owned restaurants.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026
The bikes will then be taken to a recycling center and shredded, according to Edds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
The empty box is now on the floor, and the nest of shredded paper sits atop the jumble of things Ma dumped out of her purse.
From "Dragons in a Bag" by Zetta Elliott
Even Rodrigo’s backing band, full of absolutely shredding women instrumentalists, played beside her on equal footing for exquisitely tasteful, post-punky revisions of songs across her three albums.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Getting rid of stuff is something we do nearly every week, through donating, trashing and shredding.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 23, 2026
Others suggest shredding and freezing parts of the chicken for stretch meals.
From Salon ● May 30, 2026
She had to remove all those staples before shredding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
They went off to the Invalid’s Room, where Kuda was methodically shredding his mattress.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
