shreds 1 of 2

noun

plural of shred
as in splashes
a very small amount the vandals showed not a shred of decency

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

shreds

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of shred
as in rips
to cause (something) to separate into jagged pieces by violently pulling at it shredded some cooked chicken for the soup

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shreds
Noun
Consider pairing yielding fruits like nectarines with crisper specimens like apples, even softer fruits like bananas or cherimoya or crunchier additions like passionfruit pulp or shreds of coconut. — Cooking Editor, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2026 There's one day left of food in the fridge, a flood in the basement, a hole in the ceiling and a group of people who are clinging to the last shreds of hope for the future. — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 25 June 2026 Trump’s appreciation for and emulation of the histrionics of that sport have been much discussed over the years—recall how the late Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt to shreds at the 2024 Republican National Convention to reveal a TRUMP VANCE T-shirt underneath. — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 15 June 2026 Watching the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation rip Tom Skerritt’s character to shreds on live TV would make for extremely spicy viewing. — Eric Berger & Lee Hutchinson, ArsTechnica, 31 May 2026 Angie is made more complex inside a later version, who is bruised and angry, ready to rip any and everyone to shreds. — David John Chávez, Mercury News, 29 May 2026 Potty-mouthed police officers and hill people try to cope with a mysterious creature that’s ripped their home to shreds. — Alex Ritman, Variety, 17 May 2026 Tradwives are delivering the last shreds of domestic privacy, intimacy, and pleasure directly into the hands of late-stage capitalism. — Literary Hub, 4 May 2026 As this sequence plays out, the social fabric further shreds and unravels; trust circles shrink and become ever more homogeneous; and hostility, mean spiritedness, and a general hardening take hold in society. — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 3 May 2026
Verb
Keanu Reeves shreds on stage alongside his band, Dogstar, at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo on June 26. — Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 29 June 2026 The Food Processor quickly chops, slices, and shreds a wide array of ingredients for unlimited culinary creations, while the Coffee & Spice Grinder efficiently grinds coffee beans, spices, and herbs for superior flavor and potency. — ABC News, 22 June 2026 The Suretivian Shredder Tool quickly and efficiently shreds chicken, pork, and other meats, earning nearly 20,000 five-star ratings. — Rebecca Jones, Southern Living, 23 May 2026 Meanwhile, male athletes get ripped to shreds 24/7 on television, radio, podcasts and social media without anyone questioning whether the existence of criticism itself is harmful to the sport. — Amber Harding Outkick, FOXNews.com, 14 May 2026 This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation. — Tim Dunn, Boston Herald, 26 Feb. 2026 This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation. — Time Staff, Time, 25 Feb. 2026 In competition, Kim shreds with a glowing confidence. — Aaron Tolentino, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2026 Williams cheerfully shreds the culture’s postlapsarian fantasies of childhood. — Literary Hub, 10 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shreds
  1. splashes
  2. rips
  3. specks
  4. tears
  5. glimmers
  6. bits
  7. little
  8. sprinklings
Noun
  • Foundational elements include references to classic design codes with splashes of color.
    — Julia Teti, Footwear News, 8 July 2026
  • Waterproof surfaces like quartz or marble handle spills and splashes without staining.
    — Ryan Brennan, Sacbee.com, 7 July 2026
Definition of splashes
Verb
  • It’s followed by Watts, coming in on drums slightly offbeat, and then Richards, who rips the song open with his five-string open G tuning technique.
    — René Ostberg, Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 July 2026
  • During his tour, a solar flare causes an electromagnetic disturbance that rips through the systems of civilization and into the data center.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 30 June 2026
Definition of rips
Noun
  • One released a chaff cascade—hell’s own monsoon manifesting as specks of light, sound, and EM pulses falling through the hanging garden.
    — Jeff Spry, Space.com, 26 June 2026
  • Kansas City isn't much of a pedestrian city, but now, blue and green specks of fans dot the sidewalks, like wildflowers poking through a crack in the pavement.
    — Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 June 2026
Definition of specks
Verb
  • Carter further complicates things in last week’s episode, when he drunkly tears an animal mount off the wall during Oreana’s grandmother’s big party at the 10-Petal Ranch.
    — Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 June 2026
  • As an example of how his platform would work, Wehmeyer pointed to processing insurance claims after a tornado tears through a house in Minnesota.
    — Camila Grigera Naón, Fortune, 24 June 2026
Definition of tears
Noun
  • And, notes Fredriksen, in the big picture disasters of the Anthropocene, even glimmers are important.
    — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 6 July 2026
  • Despite a few glimmers of good feeling, today's fierce political divisions have redefined a milestone that has often been marked by unity and optimism, at least for a moment.
    — Susan Page, USA Today, 22 June 2026
Definition of glimmers
Noun
  • Unlike previous studies, which examined bits of hair and bone fragments in wolf scat to determine what the animals ate, the UC Davis researchers used DNA analysis to determine the makeup of the samples.
    — Sharon Bernstein, Sacbee.com, 8 July 2026
  • But as memory makers try to build higher stacks to pack in more bits and bandwidth, experts worry this high bandwidth-memory (HBM) will trap enough heat to cook itself into oblivion.
    — IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Spectrum, 8 July 2026
Definition of bits
Noun
  • Big action scenes tend to be more harrowing in live action than animation, so that's something to look out for with the littles.
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 9 July 2026
  • Even the littles help out with age-appropriate tasks.
    — Melissa Willets, Parents, 18 June 2026
Definition of little
Noun
  • My grandmother’s version typically called just for the addition of generous sprinklings of Lawry’s garlic salt and black pepper—and that’s it.
    — Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 12 June 2026
Definition of sprinklings

Browse Nearby Words

shredding
shreds
shrew
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Shreds.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shreds. Accessed 15 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on shreds

Nglish: Translation of shreds for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 10
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
banana-mirrored
Contradictory Words Quiz Pick out which word means one thing…and the opp...
See All