shrink.
To cause to become smaller.
Meaning & usage
To cause to become smaller.
The dryer shrank my sweater.
To become smaller; to contract.
This garment will shrink when wet.
To cower or flinch.
Molly shrank away from the blows of the whip.
To draw back; to withdraw.
To withdraw or retire, as from danger.
To move back or away, especially because of fear or disgust.
Where this word comes from
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.
Shrinkage; contraction; recoil.
A psychiatrist or psychotherapist.
You need to see a shrink, you crazy fool.
My shrink said that he was an enabler, bad for me.
Loss of inventory, for example due to shoplifting or not selling items before their expiration date.
Where this word comes from
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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.