shred vs thread

shred

noun
  • A long, narrow piece (especially of fabric) cut or torn off; a strip; specifically, a piece of cloth or clothing. 

  • A thin strip of fruit peel, a vegetable, etc., cut so that it curls. 

  • A thin strand or wisp, as of a cloud, mist, etc. 

  • A fragment of something; a particle; a piece; also, a very small amount. 

  • A shard or sherd (“a piece of broken glass or pottery”). 

adj
  • Synonym of shredded (“cut or torn into narrow strips or small pieces”) 

verb
  • To become separated into small portions. 

  • To reduce body weight due to fat and water before a competition. 

  • To cut through (snow, water, etc.) swiftly with one's snowboard, surfboard, etc.; (by extension) to move or ride along (a road, track, etc.) aggressively and rapidly. 

  • To reduce (something) by a large percentage; to slash. 

  • To cut or tear (something) into long, narrow pieces or strips. 

  • To separate (something) into small portions. 

  • Chiefly in rock and heavy metal: to play (a musical instrument (especially a guitar) or a piece of music) very fast. 

  • To cut (fruit peel, a vegetable, etc.) into thin strips that curl. 

  • To convincingly defeat (someone); to thrash, to trounce. 

  • To travel swiftly using a snowboard, surfboard, or vehicle. 

  • To destroy (a document) by cutting or tearing into strips or small pieces that cannot easily be read, especially using a shredder. 

thread

noun
  • A long, thin and flexible form of material, generally with a round cross-section, used in sewing, weaving or in the construction of string. 

  • A sequence of connections. 

  • A filament, as of a flower, or of any fibrous substance, as of bark. 

  • A screw thread. 

  • A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently. 

  • The line midway between the banks of a stream. 

  • A continued theme or idea. 

  • A series of messages, generally grouped by subject, in which all messages except the first are replies to previous messages in the thread. 

  • Composition; quality; fineness. 

verb
  • To put thread through. 

  • To remove the hair using a thread. 

  • To pass (through a narrow constriction or around a series of obstacles). 

  • To screw on; to fit the threads of a nut on a bolt. 

How often have the words shred and thread occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )