Meaning & use
get shredded
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Meanings
phraseidiominformal
to train and diet until your muscles are very visible and your body has almost no fat.
Grammar: Used as an intransitive phrase: the person who changes is the subject, as in 'He got shredded in six months.'
Patterns
- get shredded for something
- get shredded in + time
- get shredded by + doing something
He spent the whole summer lifting weights and counting calories, and he finally got shredded.
She wants to get shredded before her beach holiday, so she has cut out sugar completely.
Getting shredded takes months of strict dieting, not just a few workouts.
phraseidiom
to be cut or torn into thin strips, especially of paper, meat, or documents.
Grammar: Here 'get' works as a passive-like verb: the subject is the thing that is shredded, not the person doing it.
Patterns
- get shredded by something
- get shredded in something
The confidential files got shredded before the inspectors arrived.
The lettuce got shredded in the food processor in seconds.
Common combinations
- get shredded fast
- Everyone wants to get shredded fast, but real results take time.
- get absolutely shredded
- He trained twice a day and got absolutely shredded by August.
- how to get shredded
- That video promises to show you how to get shredded in thirty days.
Synonyms and how they differ
- get ripped
- Very close in gym slang, but 'ripped' often stresses visible muscle definition, while 'shredded' stresses extremely low body fat.
- get lean
- More neutral and less extreme; 'lean' means little fat, but not necessarily the dramatic look of being shredded.
- tone up
- Much milder and often used by non-athletes; it means slight firming, not the intense condition of being shredded.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: get shredded or get ripped? get shredded or shredded?
get shredded vs get ripped
Both are gym slang for a muscular look, but 'ripped' focuses on visible muscles and 'shredded' on extremely low fat.
get shredded vs shredded
As a plain adjective it can simply mean 'torn into strips', as in 'shredded paper'; the fitness meaning only appears with people.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'get shredded' in its fitness sense correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Get shredded' in the fitness sense means to become very lean and muscular, so training for a June competition fits. The other options use 'get shredded' literally, meaning torn or cut into strips.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “get shredded”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.