shrink

American  

[shringk] / ʃrɪŋk /

verb (used without object)

• shrinks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• shrunk,
  past participle,  past
• shrank,
  past
• shrunken,
  past participle
• shrinking
  present participle

1. to draw back, as in retreat or avoidance.

   to shrink from danger; to shrink from contact.

   Synonyms:

   quail, recoil, withdraw

2. to contract or lessen in size, as from exposure to conditions of temperature or moisture.

   This cloth will not shrink if washed in lukewarm water.

3. to become reduced in extent or scope.

   Antonyms:

   increase

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verb (used with object)

• shrinks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• shrunk,
  past participle,  past
• shrank,
  past
• shrunken,
  past participle
• shrinking
  present participle

1. to cause to shrink or contract; reduce.

2. Textiles. to cause (a fabric) to contract during finishing, thus preventing shrinkage, during laundering, of the garments made from it.

noun

• shrinks
  plural

1. an act or instance of shrinking.

2. a shrinking movement.

3. shrinkage.

4. Also called head shrinker. Slang. Also a psychotherapist, psychiatrist, or psychoanalyst.

shrink British  

/ ʃrɪŋk /

verb

1. to contract or cause to contract as from wetness, heat, cold, etc

2. to become or cause to become smaller in size

3. 1. to recoil or withdraw

      to shrink from the sight of blood

   2. to feel great reluctance (at)

      to shrink from killing an animal

---

noun

1. the act or an instance of shrinking

2. slang a psychiatrist

Synonym Usage

See wince ¹. See decrease.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• shrinker
  noun
• overshrink
  verb
• nonshrinkable
  adjective
• nonshrinking
  adjective
• shrinkable
  adjective
• shrinking
  adjective
• unshrinkable
  adjective
• unshrinking
  adjective
• nonshrinkingly
  adverb
• shrinkingly
  adverb
• unshrinkingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• shrinks
  plural

Participles

• shrinking
  present
• shrunk
  past
• shrunken
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• shrink
  simple
• shrinks
  simple
• have shrunk
  perfect
• have shrunken
  perfect
• has shrunk
  perfect
• has shrunken
  perfect
• am shrinking
  progressive
• are shrinking
  progressive
• is shrinking
  progressive
• have been shrinking
  perfect progressive
• has been shrinking
  perfect progressive

Past

• shrank
  simple
• shrunk
  simple
• had shrunk
  perfect
• had shrunken
  perfect
• was shrinking
  progressive
• were shrinking
  progressive
• had been shrinking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will shrink
  simple
• will have shrunk
  perfect
• will have shrunken
  perfect
• will be shrinking
  progressive
• will have been shrinking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of shrink

First recorded before 900, and in 1955–60 shrink for def. 9; Middle English schrinken, Old English scrincan; cognate with Middle Dutch schrinken, Swedish skrynka “to shrink,” Norwegian skrukka “old shrunken woman”

Explanation

Shrink is the informal word you can use to talk about a therapist. Talking about your problems with her can hopefully help you shrink them, or make them smaller. The word shrink is related to the Swedish skrynka meaning "to wrinkle." Think about what happens to a lone forgotten fruit at the bottom of your fridge drawer. After a while, it begins to wrinkle or shrink. Clothes washed in hot water tend to shrink, so be wary of the setting on your washing machine. The use of shrink as referring to therapists started as late as the 1960s — with the idea of a psychologist being a "head-shrinker."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shrink shrinks shrank shrunk shrunken shrinking

With their customers slipping financially, luxury brands face a choice to make their goods more affordable or to hold the line on prices and let their businesses shrink.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

The glacier will starve, shrink and eventually disappear.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Under the amendment, the total number of commissioners would shrink from 35 to as few as seven, and the staff required to host meetings also would shrink significantly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

“This cycle’s playbook is shrink the floating balance, because it was expensive before the hike ever arrived. … The Fed decides what rates do next. You decide how much of your life floats.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026

A braying donkey rounded the corner, its owner in tow, causing the family to shrink against the building, trying to disappear into the shadows.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

It was also associated with less enlargement of the brain's ventricles, fluid filled spaces that tend to grow as brain tissue shrinks.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026

All that steam time also shrinks “the product,” Langer says,”anywhere from 35 to 38%.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026

The boarding becomes more frantic as the window of opportunity shrinks.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

Even as the entire new-car market shrinks, GM stands out for selling fewer vehicles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

A wave of blood goes up to my head, my stomach shrinks together, as if something dangerous has just missed hitting me.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Meanwhile, the information sector shrank by 10,000 jobs in September.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

In 2025 -- one of the warmest years on record -- glaciers also shrank across all regions, even as groundwater levels in many parts of the world are in multi-year decline, it found.

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

They were also potent for exactly the same reason: they took a distant argument about nationhood and shrank it down to lunch.

From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026

Ms. Frizzle often shrank her steel steed and its occupants to microscopic sizes so they could explore places they’d never seen.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

As the water expelled, the water monster shrank in size.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

As temperatures rise, Arctic sea ice has shrunk by nearly half a million square kilometres per decade since 1979, equivalent to losing an area the size of Spain every 10 years.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

It is not just rural council-backed services that have shrunk.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

The 2020 census places Black Angelenos at just 8% of the city’s population, the fifth census in a row where the community’s share has shrunk.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

Intel Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said last week that the chip maker had shrunk its layers of management by half, from 12 to six.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Beneath the table, a large sphere that initially seemed to be a ball of shaggy carpet grew and then shrunk rhythmically, breathing.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green

Satellite images examined by BBC Verify show shrunken glaciers, scorched areas left by wildfires, green fields turned arid and lower river levels.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

Employment growth has been sluggish for a year, due less to weaker demand for workers than a shrunken supply as immigration dries up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026

Buffett liked the monopoly status of newspapers, which has been largely destroyed over the past 20 years, leaving the industry greatly shrunken and far less profitable.

From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026

But rebuilding agencies that have been radically shrunken would take much longer than cutting them down, the scholars said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2025

The most wrenching thing, however, was our shrunken size: three days earlier, when we had ascended this terrain we’d numbered eleven; now there were only six of us.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

In 2006, readers learned how to properly transport snakes on a plane, and whether George W. Bush was shrinking.

From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2026

Salaries remain lower, unemployment remains higher and the population is older and shrinking as young people move west.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

He noted that research shows climate change is a major factor shrinking the snowpack that traditionally stored water into the summer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

The UN's World Intellectual Property Organization said more money was going into venture capital, even as the number of VC deals was shrinking and becoming increasingly concentrated on AI firms.

From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026

My hands are smaller than his, but it’s like he’s shrinking, losing his muscle mass.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

Related Words

• decrease
• diminish
• drop off
• dwindle
• fall off
• lessen
• narrow
• reduce
• shorten
• shrivel
• wane
• weaken
• wither