shrivel
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
to contract and wrinkle, as from great heat, cold, or dryness.
- Synonyms:
- shrink
-
to wither; make or become helpless or useless.
verb
-
to make or become shrunken and withered
-
to lose or cause to lose vitality
Synonym Usage
See wither.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shrivelsimple
-
shrivelssimple
-
have shriveledperfect
-
have shrivelledperfect
-
has shriveledperfect
-
has shrivelledperfect
-
am shrivelingprogressive
-
am shrivellingprogressive
-
are shrivelingprogressive
-
are shrivellingprogressive
-
is shrivelingprogressive
-
is shrivellingprogressive
-
have been shrivelingperfect progressive
-
have been shrivellingperfect progressive
-
has been shrivelingperfect progressive
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has been shrivellingperfect progressive
Past
-
shriveledsimple
-
shrivelledsimple
-
had shriveledperfect
-
had shrivelledperfect
-
was shrivelingprogressive
-
was shrivellingprogressive
-
were shrivelingprogressive
-
were shrivellingprogressive
-
had been shrivelingperfect progressive
-
had been shrivellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shrivel
First recorded in 1595–1605; akin to Swedish skroflig “uneven, rough” (perhaps originally “wrinkled, shrunken”), dialectal Swedish skryvla “to wrinkle,” Old English sceorfan “to roughen”; see scurf
Explanation
When things shrivel, they wrinkle up and get smaller, the way leaves begin to shrivel and turn brown in the fall. A lack of moisture can cause something to shrivel, and in humans it tends to be the natural process of aging that makes people shrivel a bit. Flowers will shrivel if you forget to water them, and grapes will eventually shrivel into raisins if you dry them out long enough. The root of shrivel is uncertain, but it may have a Scandinavian source and be related to the Swedish word skryvla, "to wrinkle."
Vocabulary lists containing shrivel
Seedfolks
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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"The Jacket"
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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.
See Examples For:
AUTOR: The view that everything exposed to AI will shrivel up and die makes no sense.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
He starts the film at a speed-dating event where, in a great montage, he disappoints a procession of dewy singletons who shrivel up when this hunk comes across as cold and rude.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2025
Only a few short weeks after we carried the luscious green plant into our new home, its protruding branches and leaves started to shrivel.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2024
His wife, Stephanie Allen, who cares for him, said it is hard to watch her husband, the commercial helicopter pilot, the veteran Hollywood crew member, shrivel in front of the TV.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
When the sprouts are starting to shrivel, I pour in a bunch of soy sauce.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
As the process unfolds, the cell's nucleus, which contains its genetic material, gradually shrivels before ultimately breaking apart.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
When the home lineup is daunting, as well, the overall margin for error shrivels.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2024
That’s because dehydration shrivels and distorts tissues, but frozen organs mostly keep their shape.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 7, 2023
But West shines, first as a woman in love then as one who shrivels into seething disillusion when her career stalls while her husband’s blossoms.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2022
My heart shrivels when I realize which boy Baraa is talking about.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
For decades, so much water has been taken that the river seldom meets the sea in Mexico, and its delta, once filled with lush wetlands and forests, has shriveled to stretches of dry riverbed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
San Juan's once-sparkling rivers have shriveled due to drought, and residents in the rugged, western Argentine province fear that prospective mining projects in the Andes will make matters worse.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
She parted some creosote branches to reveal a shriveled shrub, just ankle-high.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
Another liability, a short-term borrowing program called the overnight reverse repo facility that amounted to more than $2 trillion in recent years, already shriveled nearly to zero during a previous balance-sheet drawdown.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
But it was all Clare could do to hide his patchy fur, his ear shriveled up like a dried mushroom, his missing left eye.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
"A healthy plant would have 70 to 80 grains. This one will produce 10," she said, pointing to one shrivelled shoot.
From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026
UK investors' appetite for UK stocks has shrivelled.
From BBC ● May 6, 2025
Exports - a key source of revenue for Koblevo and other big wineries - have shrivelled due to the blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports.
From Reuters ● Sep. 6, 2022
Following consecutive seasons of poor rains, rivers and water pans have dried up and grasslands have shrivelled in the game reserves.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2022
It was so crumpled and wizened, so shrunken and shrivelled, it looked as though it had been pickled in vinegar.
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
By diversifying its exposure across many autocallables and a range of maturity dates, an ETF can mitigate most of the risks of shrinking income or shriveling principal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
But the oversized airport was a bleak metaphor for a city that was once more bustling and then got let down—first by the shriveling of the steel business, then by USAir itself.
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2025
Is queer humanity just a transitory circus in years of flourishing and a graveyard in years of shriveling?
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2025
A rare three-year run of La Niña from 2020 to 2023 was a notable factor in California’s most recent drought, which saw unprecedented water restrictions, shriveling groundwater supplies and record-low levels on the Colorado River.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2024
Ferula was right, I thought; I’ve been left all alone and my body and my soul are shriveling up.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Snaking queues of vehicles waited in Myanmar for shrivelling petrol supplies on Wednesday, with some gas stations shuttered as fuel stocks dried up due to the war in the Middle East.
From Barron's ● Mar. 4, 2026
The latest GDP figures underline the baked in sluggishness, the flatlining, even the shrivelling of the economy.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2025
While the bank had been preparing markets for a further stimulus cut at its March 10 meeting, rate hike bets are shrivelling.
From Reuters ● Mar. 1, 2022
“This is comfortably the actor’s worst film since ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ and even dedicated fans will find their hearts shrivelling up like week-old party balloons at its all-pervading air of clenched desperation,” says the Telegraph.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 23, 2015
As she spoke I could see her husband’s face darken and draw together, as though the passion in him were shrivelling his being to its core.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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.
