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
Related Words
See wither.
Other Word Forms
- unshriveled adjective
- unshrivelled adjective
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”; scurf
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.
Both have since swung back to Labour, but now it confronts a shrivelling neither of those moments touched – the potential of losing Wales.
From BBC
It was only in the 1990s that Germany began to let its defense industry shrivel again as it diverted spending toward the welfare state.
They say investment in the North Sea is shrivelling fast, with knock-on effects in refinery and chemical plant closures.
From BBC
Hanwha plans to pump $5 billion into the site, hoping to rebuild a shipbuilding workforce and supply ecosystem that has largely shriveled away.
Is queer humanity just a transitory circus in years of flourishing and a graveyard in years of shriveling?
From Salon
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.
