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
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 tree trunk seemed to shrivel into itself and it grew thinner and shorter.
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
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
When the home lineup is daunting, as well, the overall margin for error shrivels.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2024
That’s because dehydration shrivels and distorts tissues, but frozen organs mostly keep their shape.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 7, 2023
But West shines, first as a woman in love then as one who shrivels into seething disillusion when her career stalls while her husband’s blossoms.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2022
The fruits swell and burst crimson and the tree shrivels and dies.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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
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
He is a shriveled husk devoid of empathy.
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
Inside were half a dozen shriveled brown objects, looking more like dried-up kidneys than real stones.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Six weeks without rain has scorched his cauliflowers, shrivelled his spuds, and shrunk his bank balance.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
"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
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
It was so crumpled and wizened, so shrunken and shrivelled, it looked as though it had been pickled in vinegar.
From "The Witches" 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
If butterflies lay eggs as plants are shriveling, caterpillars might enter the world with nothing to eat.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
A rare three-year run of La Niña from 2020 to 2023 was a notable factor in California’s most recent drought, which saw unprecedented water restrictions, shriveling groundwater supplies and record-low levels on the Colorado River.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2024
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
But when he saw the ginkgo shrivelling, he "realised something this horrific could actually happen in our society".
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Lai's conviction received international condemnation at the time, with rights groups condemning his punishment as "effectively a death sentence" and a symbol of the city's shrivelling press freedoms.
From Barron's ● Mar. 6, 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
The gates of the suburban mausoleum that could soon house Spain’s most restless ghost are decked with a shrivelling bunch of red and yellow carnations, a handful of prayer cards and a cheap, broken crucifix.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2019
Cruelty to punctuation is quite unlegislated: you can get away with pulling the legs off semicolons; shrivelling question marks on the garden path under a powerful magnifying glass; you name it.
From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Author
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.
