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
-
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:
More frequently, his crops shrivel before they can be harvested.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 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
"I thought I was going to shrivel away to nothing," Balsamico told Grist.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 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
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
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
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
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
But in recent months the pool of recruits at the Los Angeles Police Department has shriveled to the point of running dry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2025
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
The dense iron of the locomotive rusted from his mere presence, and the paltry patches of grass shriveled and died under his feet.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
"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
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
This year's figure was the slowest for the retailer, showing how consumer appetite in the world's second largest economy has been shrivelled by lockdowns to halt the Omicron variant of coronavirus and slowing economic conditions.
From Reuters ● Jun. 19, 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
Ross said the plan would result in shriveling the Salton Sea to a fraction of its size, worsening hazardous dust, and would cause large emissions of greenhouse gases.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2022
She was not sure what the shriveling in her stomach and the racing in her chest meant.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
It was condemned by international rights groups as a symbol of Hong Kong's shrivelling press freedoms.
From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 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.
