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:
It was only in the 1990s that Germany began to let its defense industry shrivel again as it diverted spending toward the welfare state.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025
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
"I thought I was going to shrivel away to nothing," Balsamico told Grist.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024
“Well ... after you shrivel slowly to dust, yes.”
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
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
Without it, the country shrivels to a landlocked rump state.
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2022
Cherry growers are rushing to harvest their crop before it shrivels in the sun — but stopping their picking at lunchtime to avoid the baking heat.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 30, 2021
The fruits swell and burst crimson and the tree shrivels and dies.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
More recently, a collapsed property bubble has shriveled investment and further widened the current account surplus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
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
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
By the time Ma came to pick me up, I felt like my brain was as shriveled up as my leg.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
"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
It is a vote he would lose, and badly, and it might expose just how shrivelled that parliamentary loyalty to him now is.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2023
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 cook stood there like a shrivelled bootlace, tight-lipped, implacable, disapproving.
From "Matilda" 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
If butterflies lay eggs as plants are shriveling, caterpillars might enter the world with nothing to eat.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
No more shriveling looks of disapproval, at least not tonight.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
He must know his chances to do so appear to be shrivelling yet further.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
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
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
California is especially badly hit: snowpack all but vanished, rivers, lakes and reservoirs dropping to record lows, farms shrivelling.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 12, 2015
Her body curled too; as the weeks turned to months, she shrank into herself like the stiffest of fetuses, shrivelling, her skin sallow and waxy.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
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.
