Word.ws English Dictionary

nerve-shredding

nerve-shredding adjective: suspenseful.

Adjective

nerve-shredding (comparative more nerve-shredding, superlative most nerve-shredding)

  1. (informal) Suspenseful.
    • The interior of an active diesel locomotive's engine compartment was the nerve-shredding inferno I had imagined, intensified because the bulk of the violently drumming power plant hems you so close to it.1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 48
    • His side could find dignity in defeat after they subjected Manchester City to a nerve-shredding finale but the Premier League's second-placed team still advanced to the fourth round and a tie against Notts County that Roberto Mancini will hope will be much more straightforward.2011 January 18, Daniel Taylor, “Manchester City 4 Leicester City 2”, in Guardian Online
    Synonyms:
    nail-biting

Synonyms of nerve-shredding

Forms of nerve-shredding

comparativemore nerve-shredding
superlativemost nerve-shredding

Questions about nerve-shredding

What does nerve-shredding mean?
Nerve-shredding means suspenseful.
What part of speech is nerve-shredding?
Nerve-shredding is an adjective.

Words near nerve-shredding in the dictionary

  1. nerve-racking
  2. nerve-rackingly
  3. nerve-racks
  4. nerve-shredder
  5. nerve-shredders
  6. nerve-shredding
  7. nerve-wrack
  8. nerve-wracked
  9. nerve-wracking
  10. nerve-wracks
  11. nerve-wreck

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nerve-shredding (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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