shrivel
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
shrivels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shriveled,
past participle, past
-
shrivelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
shriveling,
present participle
-
shrivelling
present participle (especially British)
-
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
-
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:
As the hot sun beats down, the pickle begins to shrivel and the animals must consider how they can honor its final wish: to be gobbled up by a dog.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 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
The Chicano roots she had rejected had refused to shrivel and die; the culture she had hoped to adopt had refused to compensate.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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
That’s because dehydration shrivels and distorts tissues, but frozen organs mostly keep their shape.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 7, 2023
But at harvest, at the right time on the right grapes, the right type of botrytis shrivels the grapes to concentrate the juice.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021
Its life is a matter of hours; in the light of day, it retreats and shrivels, a ball gown turned to rags.
From New York Times ● Oct. 11, 2021
My heart shrivels when I realize which boy Baraa is talking about.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
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
All she can point to is a garage stuffed with throw pillows, remnants of her shriveled dream to design interior spaces for affluent clients.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2026
A survey of hundreds of Barclays online brokerage clients during the 2008-09 financial crisis found that their willingness to take risk shriveled as the stock market crashed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
We, on the other hand, will be long gone by then, shriveled by some far more minor cataclysm like the fragile little primates we are.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025
As her mama tears touched their black fur, the cubs shriveled and shrank.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
"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
The drought has laid waste to the Somali countryside, leaving crops shrivelled and the scrublands dotted with the corpses of emaciated livestock.
From Reuters ● Dec. 13, 2022
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
The sullen shrivelled leaves of a past year hung on them, grating and rattling in the sad airs, but their maggot-ridden buds were only just opening.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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
EMU’s Rynearson Stadium — capacity 30,200 — sits less than six miles from the University of Michigan, shriveling in The Big House’s massive shadow.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
How Mercy must be shriveling at the fulsome words.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
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
He blamed the sunny, dry spring shrivelling up their clover food plant.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 13, 2020
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.
