shrink
verb
\ ˈshriŋk
, especially Southern ˈsriŋk\
, especially Southern ˈsriŋk\
shrank\ ˈshraŋk
, ˈsraŋk \
or shrunk\ ˈshrəŋk
, ˈsrəŋk \;
shrunk
or shrunken\ ˈshrəŋ-kən
, ˈsrəŋ- \;
shrinking
, ˈsraŋk \
or shrunk\ ˈshrəŋk
, ˈsrəŋk \;
shrunk
or shrunken\ ˈshrəŋ-kən
, ˈsrəŋ- \;
shrinking
Definition of shrink
(Entry 1 of 2)
2a
: to contract to less extent or compass
b
: to become smaller or more compacted
c
: to lose substance or weight
d
: to lessen in value : dwindle
3a
: to recoil instinctively (as from something painful or horrible)
shrank from the challenge
b
: to hold oneself back : refrain
did not shrink from telling the truth
: to cause to contract or shrink
specifically
: to compact (cloth) by causing to contract when subjected to washing, boiling, steaming, or other processes
shrink
nounDefinition of shrink (Entry 2 of 2)
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Other Words from shrink
Verb
shrinkable
\ ˈshriŋ-kə-bəl
, ˈsriŋ- \
adjective
, ˈsriŋ- \
adjective
shrinker
noun
Synonyms & Antonyms for shrink
Synonyms: Verb
compress, condense, constrict, contract
Antonyms: Verb
balloon, expand, snowball, swell
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Examples of shrink in a Sentence
Verb
The sweater shrank when it was washed. Meat shrinks as it cooks. The town's population shrank during the war. Hot water shrank the sweater. The treatment should shrink the tumor. He shrank in horror when he saw the dead cat.Noun
He is seeing a shrink.
Recent Examples on the Web: Verb
The shrinking action pulls together the skin beneath, drawing in the edges of the wound. — Eva Frederick, Science | AAAS, "This embryo-inspired bandage is 17 times stickier than a Band-Aid," 24 July 2019 Opponents, including local school employees, have hammered away on social media, also arguing the school threatens current district funding by draining children from the shrinking public schools. — Trisha Powell Crain | Tcrain@al.com, al.com, "Rural charter school stokes religious fears, roils community in Alabama," 21 July 2019 Connecticut’s ever-shrinking dairy industry was suffering from low milk prices and soaring production costs last year and things have only gotten worse in 2019, a group of top farmers and agricultural experts told lawmakers Tuesday. — Gregory B. Hladky, courant.com, "Dozens of farms lost in the last decade as hard times continue for Connecticut’s dairy industry," 13 Aug. 2019 The mine closure isn’t the only factor in the shrinking population. — Washington Post, "Mining region struggles as it faces loss of biggest employer," 10 Aug. 2019 Whoever is doing the spying, there is little doubt that cloak-and-dagger tactics have buffeted the shrinking Iranian oil trade. — Farnaz Fassihi, New York Times, "U.S. Sanctions Turn Iran’s Oil Industry Into Spy vs. Spy," 8 Aug. 2019 That left Apple and Google fighting over a shrinking portion of the pie with their hardware, Parks Associates said. — Aaron Pressman, Fortune, "What’s in Your Wallet: Should You Get the Apple Credit Card?—Data Sheet," 5 Aug. 2019 Some Democrats wish that former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke would run against three-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, but O’Rourke, the incredibly shrinking candidate, always has been a figment of his and others’ imaginations. — George Will, Twin Cities, "George Will: For the Democrats, it’s winnowing time," 4 Aug. 2019 Some Democrats wish that former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke would run against three-term incumbent Senator John Cornyn, but O’Rourke, the incredibly shrinking candidate, always has been a figment of his and others’ imaginations. — George Will, National Review, "For the Democrats, It’s Winnowing Time," 4 Aug. 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
Climate change will make those threats even worse, as floods, drought, storms, and other types of extreme weather threaten to disrupt, and over time shrink, the global food supply. — Christopher Flavelle, BostonGlobe.com, "Climate change threatens the world’s food supply, United Nations warns," 8 Aug. 2019 The move was expected to further squeeze the country’s poor and middle class, which have seen their purchasing power shrink under the current reforms. — Washington Post, "Egypt hikes fuel prices by up to 22 %," 5 July 2019 The chips are built on TSMC's 7nm manufacturing process, a significant shrink from the 12nm process used on the Radeon RX 590, and on Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080. — Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, "AMD launches Navi as the $449 Radeon RX 5700 XT," 11 June 2019 For every extra thousand dollars that ends up being added to the price of Model 3, the size of the market shrinks by 1 percent to 2 percent, according to KBB. — chicagotribune.com, "Tesla Model 3 delivery day raises more questions than answers," 28 July 2017 Musk also tweeted Wednesday a reminder that the US federal tax credit for Teslas shrinks next month. — Matt Mcfarland, CNN, "Tesla's black paint just got $1,000 more expensive," 19 June 2019 As Deloitte noted in a previous report, retail is polarizing toward the high and low ends just as the same happens in American incomes and the middle class shrinks. — Marc Bain, Quartz, "US consumer spending hasn’t changed much in 30 years, with one exception," 30 May 2019 The new papers posted online this month showed that relative to the size of the deck, cap set size shrinks exponentially as n gets larger. — Quanta Magazine, "Simple Set Game Proof Stuns Mathematicians," 31 May 2016 Newsletter Sign-up After a plant closes, those employees are left playing musical chairs, hoping to land a spot at another nuclear plant even as that job pool shrinks. — Erin Ailworth, WSJ, "High-Paying Jobs in Nuclear Power Aren’t Looking So Safe Anymore," 28 Dec. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'shrink.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.