Home / Words / shrivelNo. 0240

shrivel

/ˈʃrɪvəl//ˈʃrɪvəl/·verb
to wrinkle, curl and contract as moisture is lost
Fig. 1 — A leaf someone left on the radiator is having a quiet afternoon of it.
01Definition

To shrivel is to dry into wrinkles — to curl, pucker and contract as the moisture goes. Leaves shrivel when heat and drought deprive them of water; fruit shrivels on the windowsill; skin shrivels after a long bath. Where shrink only reports lost size, shrivel describes the texture of the loss: the surface collapses into folds because the inside has withdrawn. Figuratively, whatever depended on nourishment can shrivel too — budgets, confidence, enthusiasm — always with that dried-husk finish.

02In use
  • iLeaves shrivel fast when heat and drought deprive them of moisture.
  • iiThe forgotten apple shriveled slowly in the fruit bowl.
  • iiiWithout new funding, the research programme shriveled to a single project.
03Collocations
  • shrivel up
  • shrivelled skin
  • leaves shrivel
  • shrivel in the heat
  • shrivel and die

Family shrivelled (adjective) · shrivelling (adjective)

04Relations

=wrinkle, wither, shrink, dry up, pucker

≠swell, plump up, flourish

06TOEFL & IELTS

The precision word for moisture-loss in process and diagram tasks: crops shrivel in drought, cells shrivel in salt solution (biology passages love osmosis), unwatered seedlings shrivel and die. Spelling is the trap: British English doubles the l in shrivelled/shrivelling, American English keeps one (shriveled) — pick your variety and be consistent, as with travelled/traveled. Choose shrivel over shrink whenever the wrinkling surface, not just the smaller size, is the point.

07Asked
Is it shriveled or shrivelled?
Both are correct — the split is American versus British. US English keeps one l: shriveled, shriveling. UK English doubles it: shrivelled, shrivelling. It is the same rule that divides traveled/travelled and labeled/labelled: British spelling doubles a final l before -ed and -ing even when the syllable is unstressed. Choose the convention of your exam or institution and hold it through the essay.
What is the difference between shrivel, wilt and wither?
Three stages of a plant's bad day. Wilt is the droop — loss of internal water pressure, often reversible with a drink. Wither is the terminal drying-out of the living thing, past saving. Shrivel is the texture — the wrinkling, curling contraction of the surface, as the leaf in the scene above curls into its husk — and it applies far beyond plants: skin, fruit, and figurative things shrivel too.
Does 'shrivel up' mean something different from 'shrivel'?
No — the up is an intensifier, not a new meaning. 'The worm shriveled up in the sun' and 'the worm shriveled in the sun' report the same event; up adds a sense of completion, the way 'dry up' and 'curl up' do. Both are correct; formal prose tends to drop the particle, conversation tends to keep it.
What makes things shrivel?
Moisture leaving faster than it is replaced — heat, drought, salt, age, or simple neglect. That mechanism decides what can shrivel: things with water inside and a skin outside. It is why biology exams like the word for osmosis (a cell in salt water shrivels as it loses water) and why grapes, unwatered seedlings and bathing-wrinkled fingertips all end up at the same verb.
Can shrivel be used about people or abstract things?
Yes, in two ways. Literally, skin and bodies shrivel with age or dehydration — 'a shrivelled old apple of a face' is a stock description. Figuratively, whatever lives on nourishment can shrivel when starved of it: funding dries up and a programme shrivels; confidence shrivels under mockery; 'I shrivelled with embarrassment' compresses the whole picture into a reflex. The dried-husk image travels with the word.
When should you choose shrivel over shrink?
When the surface tells the story. Shrink only says the thing got smaller, and covers any cause — cold, washing, a contracting economy. Shrivel is shrink plus texture, and is tied to drying: wrinkled, curled, puckered, because the moisture left but the skin stayed. Wool shrinks in the wash (smaller, still smooth); a grape shrivels into a raisin (smaller and folded).