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Shrink   /ʃrɪŋk/   Listen
verb
Shrink  v. t.  (past shrank; past part. shrunk; pres. part. shrinking)  
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."
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  v. i.  (past shrank; past part. shrunk; pres. part. shrinking)  
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." "I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room." "Against this fire do I shrink up." "And shrink like parchment in consuming fire." "All the boards did shrink."
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." "They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task."
3.
To express fear, horror, or pain by contracting the body, or part of it; to shudder; to quake. (R.)



noun
Shrink  n.  
1.
The act shrinking; shrinkage; contraction; also, recoil; withdrawal. "Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink, That I had less to praise."
2.
A psychiatrist. (Coll.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Shrink" Quotes from Famous Books



... only curiosity, she knew, but her voice sounded oddly far off to herself, the room was hazy, her whole body seemed to shrink together. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Vol. XI, No. 27, June, 1873 • Various

... you took the first priestly vows; your life is therefore sacred. But you stand now reproved. This very day you will quit Egypt. Withdraw from the Gods! [Satni, with eyes on the ground, withdraws, the people shrink aside to let him pass, abusing him in whispers, shaking their fists, and some even striking him. He goes to the terrace down left where he stands, hiding his face on his arm] Ammon has spoken other words. [The people turn from Satni] All you who ...
— Woman on Her Own, False Gods & The Red Robe - Three Plays By Brieux • Eugene Brieux

... Mademoiselle's room," concluded Marie, curtly. She looked round her and shrugged her shoulders with a grim laugh which made the Abbe shrink. They looked at each other in silence, the two participants in the secret of Gemosac; for Marie's husband, the third who had access to the chateau, did not count. He was a shambling, silent man, now working in the vineyard beneath ...
— The Last Hope • Henry Seton Merriman

... build up the solid chalk hills and lay the level plain of endless sand; so minute that, save with a powerful lens, you would never imagine the dust on your fingers to be more than dust. The thoughts of man are like these: each to him seems great in his day, but the ages roll, and they shrink till they become triturated dust, and you might, as it were, put a thousand on your thumb-nail. They are not shapeless dust for all that; they are organic, and they build and weld and grow together, till in the passage ...
— Field and Hedgerow • Richard Jefferies

... remarked one old woman arrive with a couple of eggs, another with what was perhaps her pet fowl, to be sacrificed at the altar of hospitality—in fact, only one idea seemed to animate them, namely, hospitality, and it is touching to see how they shrink from the proffered reward made by the sportsman on leaving these kind though poor and ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha


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