Other forms: shrinking, shrunk, shrank, shrinks
To shrink is to become smaller, or to draw back in fear. Wool shrinks, shrink from the task, shrinking numbers.
Wool shrinks in hot water because its scales lock together and cannot slide apart again, which is why the damage is permanent. To shrink from something is to avoid it out of fear or distaste. Shrink is also slang for a psychiatrist, short for head-shrinker.
1verbshrinkTo become smaller.
“The puddles began to shrink as soon as the sun came out.”
2verbdrawTo draw back in fear or distaste.
“A good nurse doesn't shrink from cleaning a wound, however bad it looks.”
shrink is a getting smaller, or a drawing back.
Old English scrincan means to shrivel or draw in, from a Germanic root. The psychiatrist sense is short for head-shrinker.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker- (turn)
Proto-Germanic
*skrinkwaną
Old English
sċrincan
Middle English
schrynken
English, today
shrink
From Middle English schrynken, from Old English sċrincan, from Proto-Germanic skrinkwaną. Cognate with Dutch schrinken (“to shrink”). The sense psychologist, psychotherapist is a a clipping of head-shrinker.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA