shrink
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃɹɪŋk/
rhymes: -ɪŋk
Forms: form: shrinks
form: shrinking
form: shrank
form: shrunk
form: shrunk
form: shrunken
Etymology: From Middle English schrynken, from Old English sċrincan, from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną. Cognate with Dutch schrinken (“to shrink”).
The sense “psychologist, psychotherapist” is a clipping of head-shrinker.
Senses: examples: text: The dryer shrank my sweater.
text: The bottom line is this: To shrink your gut, you need to start listening to it.
ref: 2008 October, David Schipper, “Outsmart your stomach: Seven ways to fill your gut—and lose it, too”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 135:
glosses: To cause to become smaller.
examples: text: This garment will shrink when wet.
text: I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
text: And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.
ref: 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
text: Since 1982, it has shrunk by 250 meters.
ref: 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns:
text: When they took over the 1000 'Flying Scotsman' from May 1979, the journey from London to Edinburgh shrank to just 4hrs 37mins - including a stop at Newcastle.
ref: 2021 October 6, Greg Morse, “A need for speed and the drive for 125”, in RAIL, number 941, page 52:
glosses: To become smaller; to contract.
examples: text: Molly shrank away from the blows of the whip.
glosses: To cower or flinch.
examples: text: The Libyc Hammon ſhrinks his horn,
ref: 1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 10:
glosses: To draw back; to withdraw.
examples: text: What happier natures shrink at with affright, / The hard inhabitant contends is right.
ref: 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:
text: They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task.
ref: 1881, Benjamin Jowett, transl., Thucydides:
text: The other patients in the ward, all but the Texan, shrank from him with a tenderhearted aversion from the moment they set eyes on him the morning after the night he had been sneaked in.
ref: 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 169:
glosses: To withdraw or retire, as from danger.
glosses: To move back or away, especially because of fear or disgust.
Synonyms: sense: avoid an unwanted task
word: funk
sense: avoid an unwanted task
word: shirk
sense: withdraw or retire, as from danger
word: shrink back
sense: withdraw or retire, as from danger
word: retreat
sense: withdraw or retire, as from danger
word: flinch
Derived terms: head-shrinker
nonshrink
nonshrinkable
nonshrinking
shrinkable
shrink away
shrink back
shrink down
shrinking frog
shrinking violet
shrink up
shrink-wrap
shrinky
sinew-shrunk
unshrinkable
unshrinking
unshrinkingly