[syn: shriveled, shrivelled, shrunken]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Shrink \Shrink\, v. i. [imp. Shrankor Shrunkp. p. Shrunk
or Shrunken, but the latter is now seldom used except as a
participial adjective; p. pr. & vb. n. Shrinking.] [OE.
shrinken, schrinken, AS. scrincan; akin to OD. schrincken,
and probably to Sw. skrynka a wrinkle, skrynkla to wrinkle,
to rumple, and E. shrimp, n. & v., scrimp. CF. Shrimp.]
1. To wrinkle, bend, or curl; to shrivel; hence, to contract
into a less extent or compass; to gather together; to
become compacted.
[1913 Webster]
And on a broken reed he still did stay
His feeble steps, which shrunk when hard thereon he
lay. --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes,
will shrink or draw into less room. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
Against this fire do I shrink up. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
All the boards did shrink. --Coleridge.
[1913 Webster]
2. To withdraw or retire, as from danger; to decline action
from fear; to recoil, as in fear, horror, or distress.
[1913 Webster]
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right. --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank
from the task. --Jowett
(Thucyd.)
[1913 Webster]
3. To express fear, horror, or pain by contracting the body,
or part of it; to shudder; to quake. [R.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Shrunken \Shrunk"en\,
p. p. & a. from Shrink.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
shrunken
adj 1: lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness;
"the old woman's shriveled skin"; "he looked shriveled
and ill"; "a shrunken old man"; "a lanky scarecrow of a
man with withered face and lantern jaws"-W.F.Starkie; "he
did well despite his withered arm"; "a wizened little man
with frizzy grey hair" [syn: shriveled, shrivelled,
shrunken, withered, wizen, wizened]
2: reduced in efficacy or vitality or intensity; "our shriveled
receipts during the storm"; "as the project wore on she found
her enthusiasm shriveled"; "the dollar's shrunken buying
power" [syn: shriveled, shrivelled, shrunken]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
92 Moby Thesaurus words for "shrunken":
Lilliputian, Sanforized, Tom Thumb, abated, ablated, atrophied,
attenuated, bated, belittled, brittle, by the board, consumed,
contracted, corky, curtailed, decreased, deflated, depleted,
desiccated, diminished, dissipated, dried-up, dropped, dumpy,
dwarf, dwarfed, dwarfish, elfin, emacerated, emaciated, eroded,
expended, fallen, forfeit, forfeited, gone, incipient,
irretrievable, less, lesser, long-lost, lost, lost to, lower,
lowered, meager, midget, miniaturized, nanoid, out the window,
papery, parched, parchmenty, preshrunk, pygmy, reduced, retrenched,
rudimental, rudimentary, runty, scaled-down, scraggy, scrubby,
sear, sere, shorn, shorter, shriveled, shriveled up, shrunk,
smaller, squandered, squat, stunted, thin, undersize, undersized,
used, used up, wasted, wasted away, watered-down, weakened,
weazened, wilted, withered, wizen, wizen-faced, wizened, worn,
worn away, wrinkled