shred
/ʃɹɛd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.32 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A long, narrow piece (especially of fabric) cut or torn off; a strip; specifically, a piece of cloth or clothing.
noun
A long, narrow piece (especially of fabric) cut or torn off; a strip; specifically, a piece of cloth or clothing.
noun
A long, narrow piece (especially of fabric) cut or torn off; a strip; specifically, a piece of cloth or clothing.
Example Sentences
- "There isn’t a shred of evidence to support his claims."
- "His gayeſt flooriſhes are but Gaſcoignes Weedes, or Tarletons trickes, or Greenes crankes, or Marlowes bravadoes; his jeſts, but the dregges of common ſcurrilitie, or the ſhreds of the Theater, or the of-ſcouring of new pamflets: […]"
- "They ſaid they vvere an hungry, ſigh'd forth Prouerbes / That Hunger-broke ſtone vvals: that dogges muſt eate / That meate vvas made for mouths. That the gods ſent not / Corne for the Richmen onely: VVith theſe ſhreds / They vented their Complainings, […]"
- "[…] And like a ſon of Belial, vvithout the hire of Jeſabel, charges me of blaſpheming God and the King, as ordinarily he imagines me to drink Sack and ſvveare, meerely becauſe this vvas a ſhred in his common place-Book, […]"
- "He munched a shred of toast, and was off by the omnibus to chambers."
- "But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater."
Etymology
From Middle English shrede, shred (“fragment, piece, scrap; piece cut off from something; strip of material; ornamental strip hanging from the edge of a garment; thread; band or thread woven in a garment; element, streak; plant (?)”) [and other forms], from Late Old English sċrēad, sċrēade (“piece cut off from something; a paring; a shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a piece, shred; a crack; a cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”). Doublet of escrow.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ʃɹɛd/
- British English: /ʃɹɛd/
Usage
Inflected Forms
shreds (plural)
shreds (present, singular)
shredding (participle, present)
shredded (past)
shredded (participle, past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
shredded (first person, past)
shreddest (archaic, present)
shredded (past, second person)
shreddedst (archaic, past)
shreddeth (archaic, present)