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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
shrink
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
shrinking violet
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
away
▪ The Old World was saved and the Realm of Chaos shrank away to the north.
▪ It's funny how ideas shrink away when people are put on the spot.
▪ When Cardiff had come back from the dead, he had shrunk away back down the hessian-screen corridor towards Rohmer.
▪ And with no replacement I was just shrinking away.
back
▪ Manville shrank back behind a display rack for a moment as his eyes moved towards the store window.
▪ She opened the door, and shrank back with a scream.
▪ She saw the children shrink back as she spoke.
▪ He began slumping over again, and his iron ball shrank back to a hand.
▪ As Rain and Oliver approached the three shrank back, but when Rain looked round she saw the pedlar peering after her.
▪ Fascinating, I think and begin to shrink back into my bag.
▪ They surged forward around the prostrate figure on the ground and then shrank back.
▪ Terrified the little boy shrank back, afraid of the helmet and its fierce nodding crest.
■ NOUN
share
▪ Its domestic share shrank from nearly 10 percent to just over 7 percent.
▪ But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.
▪ Their market share is shrinking considerably, and more to come yet.
size
▪ As time passed, the collarbone also shrank in size, hinting at the development of a free-swinging shoulder.
▪ He has been a steadfast supporter of balanced budgets and shrinking the size of government.
▪ When the stockings were completed they were both wide and long and shrunk to size on wooden boards.
▪ His stomach had shrunk to the size of a walnut.
▪ Jez San finds that games consoles are shrinking in size but expanding in range and addictiveness potential..
▪ He begins to fantasize that if he tried hard he could shrink to a tiny size and crawl inside the set.
▪ Counties Leitrim, Louth and Mayo have been named after towns which nowadays have shrunk to the size of villages.
▪ The monocle caused the moon to shrink in size by blocking out the rooftop on the horizon.
■ VERB
begin
▪ And already, the rush hour queues have begun to shrink.
▪ Fascinating, I think and begin to shrink back into my bag.
▪ The multi-billion-pound business had already taken a severe thrashing last year, as the outside world began to shrink away from growing violence.
▪ The back tyre mimed a shallow S, then the bike straightened up, began to shrink.
▪ His energy levels increased and the walnut-sized swellings in his neck and groin began to shrink.
continue
▪ Traffic has continued to shrink even though the city of Dallas repaved a runway and built a new control tower.
▪ And as things continue to get smaller, their cost of reproduction continues to shrink because less material is involved.
▪ But the city itself has continued to shrink, and unemployment there has remained at double the Ohio rate.
seem
▪ Everything about her seemed to have shrunk except her eyes, which were huge, inky pools that dwarfed her small features.
▪ I tend to be work-oriented and my living quarters seem to have shrunk, year by year, to this miniature state.
▪ Those who saw him then say he seemed to shrink into himself and lose what ever vestige he had till then retained.
▪ This explains why even our most effective efforts to move people into jobs seem never to shrink the welfare rolls.
▪ The whole business seemed to have shrunk in importance to the size of a peanut anyway.
▪ With her mouth shut her face seemed to shrink.
▪ Her body seemed to have shrunk since Anthony's death, giving her the appearance of an old woman.
▪ The flesh on her face seemed to shrink on her skull.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Don't wash that sweater in the machine - it'll shrink.
▪ My sweater shrank in the dryer.
▪ Oh no! My skirt has shrunk!
▪ Profits have been shrinking over the last year.
▪ We hope these reforms will shrink the nation's budget deficit.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After 5 months of chemotherapy treatment like this, the tumours shrank.
▪ As the family has shrunk it has also lost some of its traditional functions to the public world.
▪ As we have already noted, he may well have been a militant nationalist who did not shrink from violence.
▪ Its domestic share shrank from nearly 10 percent to just over 7 percent.
▪ She was convinced he was shrinking.
▪ So mounds of snow never shrink, they turn into icebergs.
▪ There has been a steadily shrinking supply of it.
▪ This explains why even our most effective efforts to move people into jobs seem never to shrink the welfare rolls.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
see
▪ If you are known to be seeing a shrink you are deemed to be going round the bend.
▪ Richard saw a shrink, who gave him a prescription for antidepressants.
▪ I don't have to see a shrink.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ That guy's crazy - he ought to see a shrink.
▪ The shrinks at the hospital said they think Gary needs therapy.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He went to another shrink, who prescribed another set of antidepressants.
▪ Richard saw a shrink, who gave him a prescription for antidepressants.
▪ She was sorry for him, but she was no shrink.
▪ Willis returns as a criminal on the run, hunted by cops, believed only by a shrink played by Madeleine Stowe.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Shrink

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.

    And on a broken reed he still did stay His feeble steps, which shrunk when hard thereon he lay.
    --Spenser.

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

    Against this fire do I shrink up.
    --Shak.

    And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.
    --Dryden.

    All the boards did shrink.
    --Coleridge.

  2. To withdraw or retire, as from danger; to decline action from fear; to recoil, as in fear, horror, or distress.

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

    They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task.
    --Jowett (Thucyd.)

  3. To express fear, horror, or pain by contracting the body, or part of it; to shudder; to quake. [R.]
    --Shak.

Shrink

Shrink \Shrink\, v. t.

  1. To cause to contract or shrink; as, to shrink finnel by imersing it in boiling water.

  2. To draw back; to withdraw. [Obs.]

    The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn.
    --Milton.

    To shrink on (Mach.), to fix (one piece or part) firmly around (another) by natural contraction in cooling, as a tire on a wheel, or a hoop upon a cannon, which is made slightly smaller than the part it is to fit, and expanded by heat till it can be slipped into place.

Shrink

Shrink \Shrink\, n.

  1. The act shrinking; shrinkage; contraction; also, recoil; withdrawal.

    Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink, That I had less to praise.
    --Leigh Hunt.

  2. [Contraction of head-shrinker, a colloquial term for psychiatrist.] a psychiatrist. [Coll.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
shrink

Old English scrincan "to draw in the limbs, contract, shrivel up; wither, pine away" (class III strong verb; past tense scranc, past participle scruncen), from Proto-Germanic *skrink- (cognates: Middle Dutch schrinken), probably from PIE root *(s)ker- (3) "to turn, bend" (see ring (n.1)).\n

\nOriginally with causal shrench (compare drink/ drench). Sense of "become reduced in size" recorded from late 13c. The meaning "draw back, recoil" (early 14c.) perhaps was suggested by the behavior of snails. Transitive sense, "cause to shrink" is from late 14c. Shrink-wrap is attested from 1961 (shrinking-wrap from 1959). Shrinking violet "shy person" attested from 1882.

shrink

"an act of shrinking," 1580s, from shrink (v.). Slang meaning "psychiatrist," (1966) is from head-shrinker.

Wiktionary
shrink

n. 1 shrinkage; contraction; recoil. 2 (context slang sometimes pejorative English) A psychiatrist or therapist; a head-shrinker. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To cause to become smaller. 2 (context intransitive English) To become smaller; to contract. 3 (context intransitive English) To cower or flinch. 4 (context transitive English) To draw back; to withdraw. 5 (context intransitive figuratively English) To withdraw or retire, as from danger.

WordNet
shrink
  1. n. a physician who specializes in psychiatry [syn: psychiatrist, head-shrinker]

  2. v. wither, especially with a loss of moisture; "The fruit dried and shriveled" [syn: shrivel, shrivel up, wither]

  3. draw back, as with fear or pain; "she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf" [syn: flinch, squinch, funk, cringe, wince, recoil, quail]

  4. reduce in size; reduce physically; "Hot water will shrink the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image?" [syn: reduce]

  5. become smaller or draw together; "The fabric shrank"; "The balloon shrank" [syn: contract] [ant: expand, stretch]

  6. decrease in size, range, or extent; "His earnings shrank"; "My courage shrivelled when I saw the task before me" [syn: shrivel]

  7. [also: shrunken, shrunk, shrank]

Wikipedia
Shrink (album)

Shrink is the fourth album by German indie rock/electronica group The Notwist. The album is notable for its movement away from the group's punk origins and including elements of electronica, ambient, and jazz.

Shrink (film)

Shrink is a 2009 American independent comedy-drama film about a psychologist who treats members of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, California. It was directed by Jonas Pate, written by Thomas Moffett, and stars Kevin Spacey and along with an ensemble cast. The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and includes music by Jackson Browne.

Shrink

Shrink may refer to:

  • Miniaturization
  • Resizing (fiction)
  • "Shrink" or "head shrinker", slang term for a mental health professional such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse, case manager or therapist.
  • Shrinkage (accounting), retail term for any merchandise unaccounted for at the time of inventory
  • Shrink (album), album by German indie rock/electronica group The Notwist
  • Shrink, a Yu-Gi-Oh! card, printed in the TCG as a Shonen Jump Championship promo
  • Shrink (Experiment 001), an experiment from Lilo & Stitch
  • Shrink (Slade), sixth book in the Special X series by Michael Slade, also known as Primal Scream
  • Shrink (film), independent drama film starring Kevin Spacey

Usage examples of "shrink".

Ugly and at once it shrinks within itself, denies the thing, turns away from it, not accordant, resenting it.

And they shrunk with affright from his ugly sight, Whose work they delighted to do.

It drew inward, shrinking from the touch of the silk to avoid allergic reaction.

Shrinking himself, crying curses for the necessity, Braggen lashed their balked rumps with the ends of his reins and drove them to forsake their sound instincts.

It seemed that Beryn had shrunk into himself, turned old and grey and somehow smaller.

Slowly, her world had shrunken until the health of her horse and the blessedly empty path behind encompassed her entire world.

The nine shrinking battalions left trails of crushed and bloodied grass as they crawled northwards and the crawl was threatening to come to a full halt when all that would be left of the division would be nine bands of survivors clustered round their precious colours.

Hanging to the hard chrome rail, I shrank from the pitiless, bottomless mystery of infinite space.

The Bravo listened in silence, though his companion, who, at another moment, and under other emotions, would have avoided him as one shrinks from contagion, saw, on looking mournfully up into his face, that the muscles were slightly agitated, and that a paleness crossed his cheeks, which the light of the moon rendered ghastly.

Black Death was, of course, a shrunken population, which, owing to wars, brigandage, and recurrence of the plague, declined even further by the end of the 14th century.

Ben Tremont let out a roar, and every broncho boy threw his rifle to his shoulder, and the Indians shrank back in silence.

Forms are rigidly insisted upon, and the reputation of the church for exclusiveness is so well known that those in the humbler walks of life shrink from entering its doors.

Gibbon extruded new organs to probe it and finally shrank away from its pumps and tanks and shielded chambers as if they had been alien monsters crouching.

Before we know it we become demoralized, and shrink from the tonic of the sudden change to sharp weather, as the steamed hydropathic patient does from the plunge.

She had the freak coloring that marked out the hypersensitive empath, and Reidel shrank before the intense wisdom and compassion in those wide eyes.