Definitions for: Shrink


[n] a physician who specializes in psychiatry
[v] decrease in size, range, or extent; "His earnings shrank"; "My courage shrivelled when I saw the task before me"
[v] draw together; "The fabric shrank"
[v] reduce in size; reduce physically; "Hot water will shrink the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image?"
[v] wither, esp. with a loss of moisture; "The fruit dried and shriveled"
[v] draw back, as with fear or pain; "she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf"



Webster (1913) Definition: Shrink, v. i. [imp. Shrankor Shrunkp. p. Shrunk
or Shrunken, but the latter is now seldom used except as a
participial adjective; p. pr. & vb. n. Shrinking.] [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.]
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, v. t.
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.

To shrink on (Mach.), to fix (one piece or part) firmly
around (another) by natural contraction in cooling, as a
tire on a wheel, or a hoop upon a cannon, which is made
slightly smaller than the part it is to fit, and expanded
by heat till it can be slipped into place.


Shrink, n.
The act shrinking; shrinkage; contraction; also, recoil;
withdrawal.

Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink, That I had less to
praise. --Leigh Hunt.

Synonyms: contract, cringe, flinch, funk, head-shrinker, psychiatrist, quail, recoil, reduce, shrivel, shrivel up, squinch, wince, wither

Antonyms: stretch

See Also: alienist, analyst, atrophy, Charles Frederick Menninger, Charles Menninger, decrease, depopulate, desolate, die back, die down, diminish, dry up, fall, flex, Harry Stack Sullivan, Jaspers, Karl Augustus Menninger, Karl Jaspers, Karl Menninger, Karl Theodor Jaspers, lessen, medical specialist, Menninger, miniaturise, miniaturize, minify, move, mummify, psychoanalyst, reef, retract, scale down, shrink, shrink back, specialist, Sullivan, William Claire Menninger, William Menninger

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