Shrinking

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Shrink \Shrink\, v. i. [imp. {Shrank}or {Shrunk}p. 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And on a broken reed he still did stay
              His feeble steps, which shrunk when hard thereon he
              lay.                                  --Spenser.
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              I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes,
              will shrink or draw into less room.   --Bacon.
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              Against this fire do I shrink up.     --Shak.
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              And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.
                                                    --Dryden.
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              All the boards did shrink.            --Coleridge.
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     2. To withdraw or retire, as from danger; to decline action
        from fear; to recoil, as in fear, horror, or distress.
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              What happier natures shrink at with affright,
              The hard inhabitant contends is right. --Pope.
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              They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank
              from the task.                        --Jowett
                                                    (Thucyd.)
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     3. To express fear, horror, or pain by contracting the body,
        or part of it; to shudder; to quake. [R.] --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Shrinking \Shrink"ing\,
     a. & n. from {Shrink}.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Shrinking head} (Founding), a body of molten metal connected
        with a mold for the purpose of supplying metal to
        compensate for the shrinkage of the casting; -- called
        also {sinking head}, and {riser}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  shrinking
       n 1: process or result of becoming less or smaller; "the material
            lost 2 inches per yard in shrinkage" [syn: {shrinkage}]
       2: the act of becoming less

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  126 Moby Thesaurus words for "shrinking":
     Olympian, Sanforizing, aloof, aseptic, atrophy, attenuation,
     backward, bashful, bashfulness, blank, boggle, boggling, chilled,
     chilly, cold, compunction, constrained, consumption, cool,
     cowardly, declining, demur, demurral, demurring, detached,
     diffidence, diffident, diminishing, discreet, distant, drying,
     drying up, dwindling, dying, ebbing, emaceration, emaciation,
     expressionless, fading, falter, faltering, fearful, fearing,
     fearsome, forbidding, frigid, frosty, goosy, guarded, hesitance,
     hesitancy, hesitant, hesitating, hesitation, icy, impassive,
     impersonal, in fear, inaccessible, introverted, jumpy, modest,
     modesty, mousy, nervous, objection, offish, parching, pause,
     preshrinkage, protest, qualm, qualm of conscience, qualmish,
     qualmishness, quiet, rabbity, receding, recoil, remote, removed,
     repressed, reserved, restrained, reticent, retiring, retreating,
     scary, scruple, scrupulosity, scrupulous, scrupulousness, searing,
     shaky, shivery, shrinkage, shriveling, shy, shyness, sinking,
     skittery, skittish, squeamish, standoff, standoffish, startlish,
     stickling, subdued, suppressed, thinning, timid, timorous,
     trembling, tremulous, trepidant, trigger-happy, unaffable,
     unapproachable, uncongenial, undemonstrative, unexpansive,
     ungenial, waning, wasting, withdrawn, withering