shrink Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a physician who specializes in psychiatry
    head-shrinker; psychiatrist.
  2. verb wither, as with a loss of moisture
    wither; shrivel; shrivel up.
    • The fruit dried and shriveled
  3. verb draw back, as with fear or pain
    squinch; flinch; recoil; wince; quail; cringe; funk.
    • she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf
  4. verb reduce in size; reduce physically
    reduce.
    • Hot water will shrink the sweater
    • Can you shrink this image?
  5. verb become smaller or draw together
    contract.
    • The fabric shrank
    • The balloon shrank
  6. verb decrease in size, range, or extent
    shrivel.
    • His earnings shrank
    • My courage shrivelled when I saw the task before me

WordNet

Shrink intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. shrinken, schrinken, AS. scrincan; akin to OD. schrincken, and probably to Sw. skrynka a wrinkle, skrynkla to wrinkle, to rumple, and E. shrimp, n. & v., scrimp. CF. Shrimp.
Wordforms
imperfect Shrank or Shrunk past participle Shrunk or Shrunken but the latter is now seldom used except as adjective participial adjective; present participle & verbal noun Shrinking
Definitions
  1. To wrinkle, bend, or curl; to shrivel; hence, to contract into a less extent or compass; to gather together; to become compacted.
    And on a broken reed he still did stay His feeble steps, which shrunk when hard thereon he lay. Spenser.
    I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room. Bacon.
    Against this fire do I shrink up. Shak.
    And shrink like parchment in consuming fire. Dryden.
    All the boards did shrink. Coleridge.
  2. To withdraw or retire, as from danger; to decline action from fear; to recoil, as in fear, horror, or distress.
    What happier natures shrink at with affright, The hard inhabitant contends is right. Pope.
    They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task. Jowett (Thucyd.)
  3. To express fear, horror, or pain by contracting the body, or part of it; to shudder; to quake. R. Shak.
Shrink transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To cause to contract or shrink; as, to shrink finnel by imersing it in boiling water.
  2. To draw back; to withdraw. Obs.
    The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn. Milton.
Shrink noun
Definitions
  1. The act shrinking; shrinkage; contraction; also, recoil; withdrawal.
    Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink, That I had less to praise. Leigh Hunt.

Webster 1913