SHRINK • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Shrink

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/ʃrɪŋk/ Listen

verb

Shrink v. t. (past shrank; past part. shrunk; pres. part. shrinking)

To cause to contract or shrink; as, to shrink finnel by imersing it in boiling water.

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)

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."

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."

To express fear, horror, or pain by contracting the body, or part of it; to shudder; to quake. (R.)

noun

Shrink n.

The act shrinking; shrinkage; contraction; also, recoil; withdrawal. "Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink, That I had less to praise."

A psychiatrist. (Coll.)

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Etymology of 'Shrink'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shrink" Quotes from Famous Books

... steadily, will not find matter of offence, in what is technically termed the composition of a natural landscape. And yet how unintelligible is this! In all other matters we are justly instructed to regard Nature as supreme. With her details we shrink from competition. Who shall presume to imitate the colors of the tulip, or to improve the proportions of the lily of the valley? The criticism which says, of sculpture or of portraiture, that "Nature is to be exalted rather than imitated," ...

— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... "I don't shrink from it at all. I only intend to choose the proper time and not give the show away at a moment when to do so will be to ...

— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts

... a sudden impulse, and not giving herself time to shrink from the determination, she bent forward a ...

— The Chautauqua Girls At Home • Pansy, AKA Isabella M. Alden

... life even as a prisoner now came in a swelling tide upon Henry. He had not known before that air could be so pure and keen, such a delight and such a source of strength to the lungs. The figure that had seemed to shrink within the narrow walls suddenly expanded and felt capable of anything. Strength flowed back in renewed volume into every muscle. Before him beyond the walls curved the dark green world, vital, intense, ...

— The Border Watch - A Story of the Great Chief's Last Stand • Joseph A. Altsheler

... and manners, could not endure the presence of the most attractive young woman, but was seized with deadly terror and sudden collapse of all the powers of life, if he came into her immediate presence; if it were added that this same young man did not shrink from the presence of an old withered crone; that he had a certain timid liking for little maidens who had not yet outgrown the company of their dolls, the listener would be apt to smile, if he did not laugh, at the absurdity of the fable. Surely, he would say, this must be the fiction of some ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

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