shred

«shred» in Mova's school dictionary: A small, thin piece torn or cut from something — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a shred, shreds); verb (shred, shreds, shredded, shredding)

meaning for a pupil

1) (noun) A small, thin piece torn or cut from something. tree →

2) (noun) A very small amount: "not a shred of evidence". tree →

3) (verb) To tear or cut something into small thin pieces. tree →

4) (verb) To destroy papers with a shredding machine. tree →

5) (slang) To play guitar very fast and well, or to skate or surf very well; "shredded" also means very muscly. tree →

sense in the lessons

In cooking, you shred cheese, lettuce or cabbage. In offices and safety, people shred papers with private details so others cannot read them. In stories and the news, "not a shred of evidence" means none at all. Phrases: in shreds, tear to shreds, a shred of truth, shredded cheese.

examples

• Mum shredded the cheese for the pizza. tree →
• The dog tore my homework to shreds! tree →
• There is not a shred of evidence that he did it. tree →
• Dad shredded the old bank letters. tree →
• Her dress was in shreds after the storm. tree →
• That guitarist can really shred! (slang) tree →

note

Past form: shredded (double d). "Tear someone to shreds" (figurative) means to criticise them harshly. "Shredded wheat" is a cereal.

In the corpora

• In 2018 one of Banksy's paintings partly shredded itself right after it sold at auction.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «shred» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.