The Collaborative International Dictionary
Shrivel \Shriv"el\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Shriveledor Shrivelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Shriveling or Shrivelling.] [Probably akin to shrimp, shrink; cf. dial. AS. screpa to pine away, Norw. skrypa to waste, skryp, skryv, transitory, frail, Sw. skr["o]pling feeble, Dan. skr["o]belig, Icel. skrj?pr brittle, frail.] To draw, or be drawn, into wrinkles; to shrink, and form corrugations; as, a leaf shriveles in the hot sun; the skin shrivels with age; -- often with up.
Wiktionary
1 wrinkled because the volume has reduced while the surface area of the outer layer has remained constant. 2 Collapsed in size. alt. 1 wrinkled because the volume has reduced while the surface area of the outer layer has remained constant. 2 Collapsed in size. v
(en-past of: shrivel)
WordNet
adj. (used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture; "dried-up grass"; "the desert was edged with sere vegetation"; "shriveled leaves on the unwatered seedlings"; "withered vines" [syn: dried-up, sere, sear, shrivelled, withered]
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 gray hair" [syn: shrivelled, shrunken, withered, wizen, wizened]
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: shrivelled, shrunken]
Usage examples of "shriveled".
Their natural habitat, the tropical forests, had shriveled back to the southern tropics.
When the ice retreated and their habitat shriveled, there would be a selection pressure for smaller body sizes.
He had spent his whole life getting ripe for the halter and the stake, and only when he shriveled up and could take no more wine, meat and women had he fallen into saintliness.
Bertodulos shriveled, and the Venetian tale remained stuck in his throat.
She could feel its presence on her hair and on her neck and on her shriveled hands.
Another was a schoolmaster from Embaro, a misshapen shriveled bit of a man whom nobody could set eyes on without asking: "What's that rabbit doing in a gathering of beasts of prey?
He could now make out white hair on the pillow and a shriveled limp cheek.
All had grown old—the black hair white, the cheeks shriveled, the colors washed out, the walls flaky, many of them crumbling.
Here and there stood a group of olive trees with silvery branches, a lonely cypress, a leafless row of vines on which one or two forgotten clusters still hungry shriveled stalks.
The north wind outside blew the shriveled leaves violently across the yard.
It was lying in a heap of rusty fern fronds, its carcass shriveled within its silvery skin.
His lips had shriveled to thin strips of blackened tissue, exposing teeth and cracked gums.
His eyelids had shriveled too, exposing his eyes in an unblinking, sightless stare at the sun.
But now, as the ice advanced and the tundra shriveled back, there was nowhere left to go that wasn't already colonized.
Their bodies were tall and ludicrously spindly, their limbs shriveled and their shoulders narrow.