shrink
Americanverb (used without object)
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to draw back, as in retreat or avoidance.
to shrink from danger; to shrink from contact.
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to contract or lessen in size, as from exposure to conditions of temperature or moisture.
This cloth will not shrink if washed in lukewarm water.
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to become reduced in extent or scope.
- Antonyms:
- increase
verb (used with object)
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to cause to shrink or contract; reduce.
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Textiles. to cause (a fabric) to contract during finishing, thus preventing shrinkage, during laundering, of the garments made from it.
noun
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an act or instance of shrinking.
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a shrinking movement.
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shrinkage.
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Also called head shrinker. Slang. Also a psychotherapist, psychiatrist, or psychoanalyst.
verb
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to contract or cause to contract as from wetness, heat, cold, etc
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to become or cause to become smaller in size
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to recoil or withdraw
to shrink from the sight of blood
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to feel great reluctance (at)
to shrink from killing an animal
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noun
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the act or an instance of shrinking
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slang a psychiatrist
Related Words
Other Word Forms
- nonshrinkable adjective
- nonshrinking adjective
- nonshrinkingly adverb
- overshrink verb
- shrinkable adjective
- shrinker noun
- shrinking adjective
- shrinkingly adverb
- unshrinkable adjective
- unshrinking adjective
- unshrinkingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of shrink
First recorded before 900, and in 1955–60 shrink for def. 9; Middle English schrinken, Old English scrincan; cognate with Middle Dutch schrinken, Swedish skrynka “to shrink,” Norwegian skrukka “old shrunken woman”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Canada’s economy shrank as it closed out 2025, yet still managed to show resilience against the U.S. administration’s protectionist shift.
Instead of shrinking their work, AI will lead to “work intensification” where employees use their newfound tools to tackle a broader scope of tasks, resulting in increased multitasking across the company.
From MarketWatch
Investors not only worry that AI efficiencies will drive companies to cut costs and head counts; they also fear that fewer employees will directly translate to shrinking demand for traditional software licenses.
From MarketWatch
He shrank ministries, lifted price controls and widened the peso’s trading bands, cooling triple-digit inflation and stabilizing markets.
That can only happen so many times before there’s no physical way to shrink transistors down any further—at least not on silicon wafers, which is what microchips have been made from since their inception.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
