shredder

[shred-er]

noun

1. a person or thing that shreds.

2. a machine for destroying secret or private documents by shredding shredding them.

3. any of various devices used to shred crops, vegetables, wood, metal, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of shredder¹

First recorded in 1565–75; shred + -er ¹

Example Sentences

“What if the old financial playbook is costing you?” says the text above a graphic of a $100 bill going through a shredder.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The purchase of Crown also includes a meat shredder, a machine used to cut up cooked chicken.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"To think these precious papers could've been lost to the shredder and now they will go on to educate and inspire generations," he said.

Read more on BBC

Seven weeks in, he suggested, 2025 is on track to be one of them: “a time when the basic assumptions about the way our world works are fed into the shredder.”

Read more on Salon

“Once the trees go through the shredders, they vanish,” he said, showing a reporter an image of a small pile of brown dust left by the crews.

Read more on Los Angeles Times