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shrink

/ʃrɪŋk//ʃrɪŋk/·verb
to become smaller; to draw back in fear or reluctance
Fig. 1 — A knitted sweater lies flat with its arms spread, steaming, just out of a too-hot wash.
01Definition

To shrink is to grow smaller — to contract in size, amount, or extent. Wool shrinks in hot water; a glacier shrinks as it melts; a market shrinks when buyers vanish. The word carries a second, bodily sense too: to shrink back is to flinch and recoil, pulling inward away from something feared. Both meanings share one motion — a drawing-in, a retreat from the space once filled. What shrinks does not merely lessen; it withdraws, leaving the outline of what it used to be.

02In use
  • iThe lake has shrunk to half its size as years of drought slowly deplete it.
  • iiDemand shrank so fast that even robust firms struggled to survive.
  • iiiShe shrank back from the edge of the precarious cliff, suddenly aware of the drop.
03Collocations
  • shrink in size
  • shrink back
  • a shrinking market
  • shrink from a challenge
  • rapidly shrinking

Family shrinkage (noun) · shrunken (adjective) · shrinking (adjective)

04Relations

=contract, diminish, dwindle, recoil, shrivel

≠expand, grow, swell

05Compared
PairThe difference
shrink vs dwindlea quantity leaks gradually away toward nothing → dwindle; something becomes smaller, at any pace → shrink.
shrink vs enlargemade bigger by an outside hand, on purpose → enlarge; becoming smaller, usually of its own accord → shrink.
shrink vs expandedges moving outward → expand; edges moving inward → shrink.
shrink vs growgets bigger, naturally and from within → grow; gets smaller, drawing in from the space it filled → shrink.
shrink vs shirkdodging work or duty that is yours → shirk; getting smaller, or flinching back → shrink.

Also compared with shrivel, stretch, swell

06TOEFL & IELTS

Irregular verb — shrink, shrank, shrunk; examiners notice the forms. The literal sense suits IELTS Task 1 ('the market shrank by 10%') and environmental writing ('shrinking ice caps'). The figurative shrink from (avoid out of fear) is useful in Speaking and essays ('she never shrinks from a challenge'). A common trap is using 'shrink' for deliberate reduction — prefer 'cut' or 'reduce' when an agent does it on purpose.

07Asked
Is it 'shrank' or 'shrunk'?
Both are real, with different jobs. Shrank is the simple past: the sweater shrank in the wash. Shrunk is the past participle, used after have/has/had: the sweater has shrunk. And shrunken is an adjective only — a shrunken head, never 'it has shrunken'. The reliable test is the helper verb: a have nearby wants shrunk; a bare past wants shrank.
Why are psychiatrists called 'shrinks'?
From headshrinker, 1950s American slang that jokingly likened the therapist to a tribe shrinking enemy heads — the mind-doctor 'shrinking' an outsized ego or a swollen problem down to size. It clipped to shrink and stuck. The tone is informal and a touch irreverent, so it belongs in conversation, not a clinical or formal register.
Is shrink the opposite of expand?
Yes — shrink draws inward while expand pushes outward; the two are set against each other on the expand vs shrink page in the 'Compared' list above.
What is the difference between shrink and shrivel?
Shrink is to get smaller overall, keeping shape — a market shrinks, a jumper shrinks. Shrivel adds drying and wrinkling: it shrinks by losing moisture and puckers as it goes, like a grape into a raisin or skin in the sun. Everything that shrivels shrinks, but shrinking need not shrivel: the scene above is pure shrink, a sweater tightening inward with not a wrinkle or a lost thread.
What is shrinkflation?
A quiet price rise in disguise: the product shrinks while the price holds, so you pay the same for less — a chocolate bar loses ten grams, the label does not. The word blends shrink and inflation, and it names a real tactic manufacturers use when raising the sticker price would be noticed but trimming the contents might not. Same shelf price, smaller thing behind it.