shrink

From Middle English shrinken, from Old English sċrincan, from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną. Cognate with Dutch schrinken (“to shrink”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɹɪŋk/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

shrink (third-person singular simple present shrinks, present participle shrinking, simple past shrank or shrunk, past participle shrunk or shrunken)

1. (transitive) To cause to become smaller.

   The dryer shrank my sweater.

2. (intransitive) To become smaller; to contract.

   This garment will shrink when wet.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.

   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

     Since 1982, it has shrunk by 250 meters.

3. (intransitive) To cower or flinch.

   Molly shrank away from the blows of the whip.

4. (transitive) To draw back; to withdraw.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     The Libya Hammon shrinks his horn.

5. (intransitive, figuratively) To withdraw or retire, as from danger.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

     What happier natures shrink at with affright, / The hard inhabitant contends is right.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Jowett (translator), Thucydides

     They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task.

6. (intransitive) To move back or away, especially because of fear or disgust.

• (avoid an unwanted task): funk, shirk
• (withdraw or retire, as from danger): shrink back, retreat

• (to cause to become smaller): expand, grow, enlarge, stretch
• (become smaller): expand, grow, enlarge, stretch

shrink (plural shrinks)

1. Shrinkage; contraction; recoil.
   • Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink, / That I had less to praise. — Leigh Hunt.
2. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

   You need to see a shrink.

   My shrink said that he was an enabler, bad for me.

   • 1994, Green Day, Basket Case

     I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. She says it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.

   Synonym: head-shrinker

3. (uncountable, business) Loss of inventory, for example due to shoplifting or not selling items before their expiration date.
   • 2011, Charles Sennewald & ‎John Christman, Retail Crime, Security, and Loss Prevention: An Encyclopedic Reference, p. 227:

     Assuming the retailer's shrink is average or below, and the owner is comfortable with the level of shrink, perhaps nothing more need be done except to maintain vigilance and to monitor the shrink for signs of emerging problems.

• (therapist): The slang sense was originally pejorative, expressing a distrust of practitioners in the field. It is now not as belittling or trivializing.

• shrink at OneLook Dictionary Search
• shrink in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.