Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Shred |
ShredNoun1. A tiny or scarcely detectable amount. 2. A small piece of cloth. Verb1. Tear into shreds. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "shred" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Food & Agriculture | Coarse meal. Source: European Union. (references) |
Slang | Verb. Source: Unknown. Definition: Going all out; going hard; right on the line of being out of control. Context: It's used to describe someone riding a certain way on the slopes. Social Source: Snowboarders. Source: Compiled by The University of Oregon. (additional references) |
Slang in 1811 | SHRED. A taylor. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: ShredSynonyms: iota (n), rag (n), scintilla (n), smidge (n), smidgen (n), smidgeon (n), smidgin (n), tag (n), tag end (n), tatter (n), tittle (n), whit (n), rip up (v), tear up (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Filament | Strip, shred, slip, spill, list, band, fillet, fascia, ribbon, riband, roll, lath, splinter, shiver, shaving. |
Greatness | Greatly; Adjective: much, muckle, well, indeed, very, very much, a deal, no end of, most, not a little; pretty, pretty well; enough, in a great measure, richly; to a large extent, to a great extent, to a gigantic extent; on a large scale; so; never so, ever so; ever so dole; scrap, shred, tag, splinter, rag, much; by wholesale; mighty, powerfully; with a witness, ultra, in the extreme, extremely, exceedingly, intensely, exquisitely, acutely, indefinitely, immeasurably; beyond compare, beyond comparison, beyond measure, beyond all bounds; incalculably, infinitely. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Shred |
| English words defined with "shred": Culpon ♦ Scrid, Shredding, Shredless. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "shred": cysteinyl, cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase ♦ excelsior-machine feeder, EXCELSIOR-MACHINE TENDER ♦ HAIR-SPINNING-MACHINE OPERATOR, Hammer Mill ♦ KNIFE SETTER ♦ PUMP-PRESS OPERATOR ♦ shredding-machine tender. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "shred": Toshred. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You seem to have some shred of sense (The Lost World: Jurassic Park; writing credit: David Koepp) If you had any shred of decency, you would have participated, or at least, um, helped (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) You realize we've just lost our last shred of dignity (Roswell; writing credit: Ronald D. Moore; Gretchen J. Berg) | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
| Tear; rip; shred; cut; slit. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | They found their way into the room through a crack"deer mice can squeeze through holes as small as a shirt button! Some mice chew through the fabric of an old armchair and build a nest inside it. Other mice shred bits of magazines and build nests under the shredded pieces. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | If you make a charge against Republicans, from the October Surprise to Clarence Thomas, you don't need a shred of evidence. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Shred" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 79.28% of the time. "Shred" is used about 111 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 79.28% | 88 | 35,154 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 13.51% | 15 | 90,616 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 7.21% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Total | 100.00% | 111 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
shred | 154 | shred type | 3 |
shred it | 136 | plus shred | 3 |
guitar shred | 27 | shred tech.com | 3 |
card shred | 22 | docu shred | 3 |
paper shred | 17 | echo n shred vac | 3 |
shred tech | 15 | guitar lick shred | 3 |
file shred | 11 | helmet ready shred | 3 |
shed shred | 8 | max shred | 3 |
shred 2 | 6 | ped shred | 3 |
chicken shred | 6 | company shred | 3 |
secure shred | 6 | global shred | 3 |
it.com shred | 5 | canada it shred | 2 |
shop shred | 5 | shred master | 2 |
shred ready | 5 | insta shred | 2 |
pro shred | 5 | security shred | 2 |
document shred | 4 | shred x | 2 |
shred guitar lesson | 4 | crinkle shred | 2 |
shred xp | 4 | ameri shred | 2 |
central shred | 4 | et shred | 2 |
shred size | 3 | mobile shred | 2 |
crinkle shred wholesale | 3 | shred veggie | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "shred"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | gris (clip, rend, rent, rip, rip up, slit, split, tear, torn), grij (canker, chew, cut into pieces, grate, grind, hash, mince, scour, scrape), copë (chunk, excerpt, fraction, fragment, fritter, hunk, knob, loaf, lump, mammock, morsel, nub, partition, piece, rag, scrap, scrap metal, section, segment, shiver, sliver, snip, snippet, splint, tatter), bëj copash (sliver, smash). (various references) | |
Arabic | مزقة (rag, tatter, torn piece), مزق إربا إربا (pull to pieces), مزق إربا (ribbon), مزق (cut up, disrupt, fracture, jag, lacerate, pull apart, pull to pieces, quarter, rend, rent, rip, rip apart, rive, rupture, sever, tatter, tear, tear to pieces, tear up, unrip, unseam), قطعة أرض (area, land, lot, parcel, piece, piece of land, plot, spit, tract), ذرة (iota, jot, mealies), خرقة (cloth, duster, rag, tatter), أبلى ثوبا. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | стружка (chip, shave, swarf), следа (footprint, ghost, odor, odour, print, rag, relic, relish, remnant, rudiment, savor, savour, scar, scent, scintilla, shadow, show, sign, spice, tang, touch, trace, track, trail, train, trait, vestige, whiff), тясна ивичка, късче (bit, cantlet, morsel, scrap, taste), капка (bead, dollop, dribble, dribblet, drip, drop, minim, modicum, tear, tincture, vestige), настъргвам (grate), нарязвам (hash, slice), парченце (bit, lick, patch, scrap, sippet, snap, snip), парцалче (bit of rag). (various references) | |
Chinese | 碎布條 , 细片. (various references) | |
Czech | roztrhat na malé kousky, rozřezat (carve up, cut up, hash, slash, slice), odstřižek, odřezek (strip), kousek (bit, cut, inchmeal, jot, mammock, nibble, parcel, part, patch, piece, scrap, wedge, whit). (various references) | |
Danish | skraa (grist, groats), gruttet korn (farina V.S., groats, semolina). (various references) | |
Dutch | strengpersen (noodle), schroot (fagot iron, grist, groats, metal scrap, oil meal extracted, scrap, steel scrap, strip). (various references) | |
Farsi | پاره کردن (Cut, Lacerate, Mangle, Rend, Rip, Tear), پاره (Bit, Fragment, Scrap), تکه (Bit, Dab, Fragment, Glimmer, Gob, Goblet, Item, Loaf, Lot, Lump, Morsel, Nub, Pane, Patch, Portion, Scrap, Shiver, Slab, Slice, Smidgen, Whit), سرتکه پارچه , ذره (Ace, Bit, Corpuscle, Dust, Grain, Iota, Jot, Nip, Particle, Scruple, Speck, Vestige, Whit), خرده (Bit, Bittock, Crumb, Debris, Fragment, Glimmer, Grain, Jot, Nip, Particle, Small, Vestige, Weeny, Whit), ریز (Atomic, Fine, Minuscule, Minute, Pony, Small, Snippet, Tiny, Wee, Weeny), باریک بریدن . (various references) | |
Finnish | rouhe (crush, grind, stamp), riekale (rag, tatter), lappu (bit, label, pad, patch, piece, slip), hetale (fringe). (various references) | |
French | transformer en nouilles, réduire en nouilles, râper, parcelle, mettre en nouilles, mettre en lambeaux, lambeau, grain égrugé, grain (shot), déchiqueter. (various references) | |
German | zerfetzen (frazzle, lacerate, rip to shreds, rip up, slash, tatter, tear to pieces, tear up, to frazzle, to slash), Stückchen (fraction, little bit, nub, particle, Pat, scrap, small piece, snippet, tablet), fetzen (be mind-blowing, frazzle, have a driving beat, rag, ribbon, rip, scrap, smithereens, snatch, tatter, tatters, wisp). (various references) | |
Greek | κομματάκι (fragment, morsel, scrap). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לקרוע ל'זרים (dismember, hack, hackle, pull to pieces, rip up), לרטש (crush, mangle, tear to pieces), שמץ (grain, iota, jot, mite, modicum, morsel, odor, odour, particle, pinch, shade, soupcon, sprinkling, suspicion, syllable, tincture, trace, whit), קרע (rag, rift, rupture, schism, snag, tag, tatter, tear). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rongy (clout, piece of linen, rag, snotty, tatter), foszlány (rag, snatch, tatters, waft, whiff). (various references) | |
Italian | tagliuzzare (chop, mince, Whittle). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 断片 (bits & pieces, crumb, fragment), 断片 (bits and pieces, crumb, fragment). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | "ぺ" (bits and pieces, crumb, fragment, shell or bullet fragment, shrapnel). (various references) | |
Korean | 조각 (fraction, Piece, Pieces, Sculpturing, slice). (various references) | |
Manx | ribbag (coupon, dulse leaf, fragment of cloth, piece, scrap), mynghiarrey, kyeen, fritlag (rag, tatter, tattered cloth). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | edshray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | trapo (flitter, frazzle, old-clothes man, rag, scrap, tatter, wiper), tira (brace, ray, ribbon, screed, slat, strip, stripe), retalhar (chine, hack, hackle), rasgar em tiras (slit), pedaço (bit, cantle, casting, chop, chunk, fragment, fritter, lump, morsel, piece, plat, rag, slice, spall), grão triturado (groats), farrapo (flitter, frazzle, old-clothes man, rag, scrap, tag, tatter), esfrangalhar, desfiar (ravel, spin, unravel). (various references) | |
Romanian | scãmoşa (fluff), rupe în bucãţi (break up, pull in pieces, tear to pieces, tear to ribbons), petic (patch, rag, vamp), otreapã (rag, toad), forfeca (slate, tear), fâşie (band, ribbon, slip, streak, stripe), cantitate micã (dribblet, pennyworth), buleandrã (drab, draggle-tail, duster, rag, rags, rubber, scamp, slattern, sticks, trollop), bucatã (article, bar, brick, clod, cut, dollop, fragment, hunk, junk, length, morsel, nub, part, Pat, patch, piece, ribbon, slice, snack, steak, tablet). (various references) | |
Russian | сечь, тряпка (dust rag, duster, milksop, mollycoddle, rag, softy, tatter, washcloth, washrag), шинковать (chop), кромсать (mangle), измельчать клок. (various references) | |
Scottish | sgrait (a shred). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | trunka (bit, crumb, dollop, grain, scintilla, sprinkling, whit), parče (chip, patch, piece, shiver, slice, slip, strip), komad (chunk, piece, play, slip, snippet), iseckati (hack, haggle, mince). (various references) | |
Spanish | tira (band, strap, strip), pizca (dash, jot, mite, ounce, particle, pennyworth, pinch, scrap, shade, shadow, soupcon, sprinkle, thought, touch, trace, trifle, whit), jirón (wisp), hacer trizas (pick to pieces, tear apart), hacer tiras, grano triturado (groats), fragmento (chip, fragment, morsel, shiver, wisp), despedazar (tear), desfibrar (string), cortar en tiras, chispa (gleam, glint, scintilla, spark). (various references) | |
Swedish | skära sönder (cut to pieces, cut up, dissect), remsa (border, brim, brink, edge, edging, fringe, rand, ribbon, rim, slip, snip, strip, swath, tape). (various references) | |
Thai | เศษผ้า, ชิ้นเล็กชิ้นน้อย, ถูกตั"หรือฉีกเป็นชิ้นๆ, ตั"หรือฉีกเป็นชิ้นๆ. (various references) | |
Turkish | parçalanmak (break, break to pieces, break up, come apart, crash, crumble, crush, decay, digest, disintegrate, disrupt, fall to pieces, fly to pieces, go into splinters, go splinters, go to pieces, rend, rupture, shatter, shiver, smash, Spall, splinter, split, split off), parçalamak (bash in, break into pieces, break up, calve, comminute, crumble, cut smth. asunder, cut up, dash, disintegrate, disjoint, dismantle, dismember, disrupt, lacerate, pull to pieces, rend, scrap, shatter, shiver, smash, smash in, smash up, Spall, splinter, split, take to pieces, tear to pieces, total), parça (attachment, batch, bit, cake, Cantle, component, cut, dribblet, driblet, fraction, fragment, gobbet, item, lump, moiety, morsel, part, passage, patch, piece, portion, scrap, segment, snatch, tool), paçavra (clout, rag, scrap, scraps, swab, tatter), lime lime etmek (tear to ribbons), küçük küçük kesmek, en küçük parça, doğramak (butcher, carve, chop, chop up, cut up, hack, hash, saw off), dilimlemek (chip, cut into slices, separate into segments, slice), dilim (cut, round, sector, segment, slice, strip). (various references) | |
Turkmen | зogdan (rag, tuft). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | смужка (band, bandelet, stria, strip), різати (chaff, cut), розпадатися (crumble, decompose, disjoin, fall apart), частка (allotment, ante, contingent, crumb, deal, detail, divvy, dose, draught, fraction, lobe, particle, portion, quantity, quota, quotient, slice), кришити (chop, crumble, mince), обрізок (offcut, snippet). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | miếng nhỏ (sippet), mảnh vụn một tí, một mảnh, một chút (somewhat, spice, tittle, tot, trifle). (various references) | |
Welsh | llarp (clout), affliw (particle). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Old English | 450-1100 | screadian. (various references) |
| Middle Dutch | 1100-1500 | scrode. (various references) |
| Middle French | 1400-1600 | retail. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | 2 Kings Chapter 4, Verse 39 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Kai exhlqen eiV eiV ton agron sullexai ariwq kai euren ampelon en tw agrw kai sunelexen ap' authV toluphn agrian plhreV to imation autou kai enebalen eiV ton lebhta tou eyematoV oti ouk egnwsan |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Et egressus est unus in agrum ut colligeret herbas agrestes invenitque quasi vitem silvestrem et collegit ex ea colocyntidas agri et implevit pallium suum et reversus concidit in ollam pulmenti nesciebat enim quid esset |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | And oon wente oute in to the feelde, that he gedre wijld herbis; and he foond as a wijld vyne, and he gederde of it wijld gourdis of the feeld. And he fulfillide his mantylle, and turnede ayein, and hewede to gydre in to the pott of potage; he wyst not forsothe what it was. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And one went out into the field to get green plants and saw a vine of the field, and pulling off the fruit of it till the fold of his robe was full, he came back and put the fruit, cut up small, into the pot of soup, having no idea what it was. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | 2 Kings Chapter 4, Verse 39 |
| Cebuano | Ug ang usa miadto sa kapatagan sa pagpanguha sa mga ulotanon, ug nakakaplag sa usa ka balagon nga ihalas, ug nagtigum sa mga ihalas nga kalabasa nga usa ka puyos, ug miadto ug gihiwa-hiwa sila nga gisulod sa kolon sa linat-an; kay kini wala hiilhi nila. |
| Croatian | Jedan od njih ode u polje da nabere zelja, ali naðe divlju povijušu i nabra s nje punu haljinu gorkih plodova. Vrati se i nareza ih u lonac, jer nije znao kakvi su. |
| Danish | Så gik en ud på Marken for at plukke Urter, og da han fandt en Slyngplante med vilde Agurker, plukkede han så mange, han kunde bære i sin Kappe; da han kom tilbage, skar han dem itu og kom dem i Gryden, thi han kendte dem ikke. |
| Dutch | Toen ging er een uit in het veld, om moeskruiden te lezen, en hij vond een wilden wijnstok, en las daarvan, zijn kleed vol wilde kolokwinten, en kwam, en sneed ze in den moespot; want zij kenden ze niet. |
| Finnish | Niin muuan heistä meni kedolle poimimaan yrttejä ja löysi villin köynnöskasvin ja poimi siitä villikurkkuja viittansa täyden. Tultuaan hän leikkeli ne keittopataan, sillä he eivät tunteneet niitä. |
| German | Da ging einer aufs Feld, daß er Kraut läse, und fand wilde Ranken und las davon Koloquinten sein Kleid voll; und da er kam, schnitt er's in den Topf zum Gemüse, denn sie kannten es nicht. |
| Haitian Creole | Yonn nan pwofèt yo soti al chache kèk fèy legim. Li jwenn yon pye lyann mawon, li keyi kèk fwi ki te tankou ti kalbas, li plen rad li. Li tounen, li koupe yo an ti moso, li mete yo nan bouyon an san konnen sa yo te ye. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Salah seorang dari nabi-nabi itu keluar ke ladang untuk mencari sayuran, lalu ia menemukan sejenis tanaman labu yang liar. Ia memetik buah tanaman itu sebanyak-banyaknya, dan membawanya pulang. Tanpa mengetahui buah apa itu, ia memotong-motongnya dan memasukkannya ke dalam belanga itu. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Maka keluarlah seorang anu ke padang hendak mencahari sayur-sayur, maka didapatinya pokok hanzal, dipetiknya dari padanya buah hanzal saputangannya penuh, lalu datanglah ia, dikecik-kecikkannya dan dimasukkannya ke dalam periuk yang berisi gulai itu, karena tiada dikenalnya akan dia. |
| Maori | Na ka haere tetahi ki te parae ki te kohi puwha, ka kite i te hue maori, ka kohia e ia he hue maori, ki tonu tona kakahu; haere ana, katokatohia ana ki roto ki te kohua, ki nga mea i kohuatia ra: kihai hoki i mohiotia e ratou. |
| Norwegian | Da gikk en av dem ut på marken for å sanke urter, og han fant en vill slyngplante og sanket av den ville gresskar, sin kappe full, og da han kom inn, skar han dem op i matgryten; for de kjente ikke til dem. |
| Portuguese | Então um deles saiu ao campo a fim de apanhar ervas, e achando uma parra brava, colheu dela a sua capa cheia de colocíntidas e, voltando, cortou-as na panela do caldo, não sabendo o que era. |
| Rumanian | Unul din ei a iewit pe ckmp sq culeagq verdeyuri; a gqsit viyq sqlbaticq wi a cules din ea curcubeye sqlbatice, pknq wi -a umplut haina. Cknd s`a kntors, le -a tqiat kn bucqyi kn oala cu ciorbq, cqci nu le cunowtea. |
| Swedish | Och en av dem gick ut på marken för att plocka något grönt; då fick han se en vild slingerväxt, och av den plockade han något som liknade gurkor, sin mantel full. När han sedan kom in, skar han sönder dem och lade dem i soppgrytan; ty de kände icke till dem. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "shred": shredded, shredder, shredders, shredding, shreds. (additional references) | |
| |
"Shred" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: esred, hred, schred, schrund, Shedd, sheed, sherred, shert, shired, shrad, Shrada, shrade, Shrdlu, shread, shredd, Shree, shreed, shreg, shret, shreud, shrifd, shrond, shrred, shrud, shrued, shrwed, shry, shryd, Shved, shyed, spred, srad, sred, srid, sured, surid, thred. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "shred" (pronounced shre"d) |
| 3 | -r e" d | bread, bred, dread, interbred, purebred, read, red, Redd, retread, spread, thoroughbred, thread, tread, unread, widespread. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: herds, sherd. | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-h-r-s" | |
-1 letter: edhs, herd, hers, reds, resh, shed. | |
-2 letters: edh, eds, ers, her, hes, red, res, ser, she. | |
-3 letters: de, ed, eh, er, es, he, re, sh. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-h-r-s" | |
+1 letter: dasher, heders, hiders, hordes, horsed, reshod, rushed, shader, shared, sherds, shored, shreds, shrewd. | |
+2 letters: adheres, airshed, brushed, cheders, chiders, crashed, crushed, dashers, dashier, dearths, dehorns, dehorts, dervish, dishier, dithers, echards, freshed, hardens, hardest, hardies, hardset, hatreds, headers, hearsed, hedgers, heeders, heralds, herders, herdics, heredes, hinders, hirsled, holders, hurdies, hurdles, hydrase, nerdish, phrased, reddish, redfish, shaders, shadier, sharked, sharped, sheared, shedder, sheered, shirked, shirred, shorted, shrewed, shrined, shrived, shudder, sphered, threads, trashed, ushered. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Bible Trace 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.