shredder
(ˈʃrɛdə(r))
[f. shred v. + -er1.
Cf. OFris. skrêdere clipper of coin, MLG. schrôder, schrâder (LG. schröder) pruner, etc., also tailor (whence Da. skrædder, Sw. skräddare), MHG. schrôtære (mod.G. schröter) now chiefly in sense ‘stag-beetle’.]
† 1. A lopper or pruner of trees. Obs.
| 1589 Fleming Virg. Ecl. i. note i, The lopper or shredder of trees. 1631 J. Anchoran Comenius' Gate Tongues 69 A lopper or shredder seates and putteth young graffs, sciences, shootes and twigges to a seed plot. |
† 2. One who utters ‘scraps’. Obs.
| 1592 Nashe Strange Newes K 1 b, The short shredder out of sandy sentences without lime. |
3. An instrument for shredding; † a pruning-knife; a machine for reducing a substance to shreds; spec., a machine for reducing documents to small unreadable fragments.
| 1572 in Midland Counties Hist. Coll. II. 363 Item two billes & a shredder iiij{supd}. 1887 American XIV. 24 The use of a shredder for reducing the canes to a pulp. 1950 [see shred v. 4 b]. 1962, 1973 [see paper shredder s.v. paper n. 12]. 1977 New Yorker 27 June 23/1 Papers were discussed behind sealed doors..and tossed into shredders. |
† 4. A front tooth, an incisor. Obs.
| 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 138 The Fore-teeth or Shredders. 1683 Snape Anat. Horse v. vi. (1686) 210 The Incisores, Cutters or Shredders. |