shrink

From Middle English schrynken, from Old English sċrincan, from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną. Cognate with Dutch schrinken (“to shrink”).

The sense “psychologist, psychotherapist” is a clipping of head-shrinker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɹɪŋk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

shrink (third-person singular simple present shrinks, present participle shrinking, simple past shrank or shrunk, past participle shrunk or shrunken)

1. (transitive) To cause to become smaller.

   The dryer shrank my sweater.

   • 2008 October, David Schipper, “Outsmart your stomach: Seven ways to fill your gut—and lose it, too”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 135:

     The bottom line is this: To shrink your gut, you need to start listening to it.

2. (intransitive) To become smaller; to contract.

   This garment will shrink when wet.

   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

     And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.

   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns‎:

     Since 1982, it has shrunk by 250 meters.

   • 2021 October 6, Greg Morse, “A need for speed and the drive for 125”, in RAIL, number 941, page 52:

     When they took over the 1000 'Flying Scotsman' from May 1979, the journey from London to Edinburgh shrank to just 4hrs 37mins - including a stop at Newcastle.

3. (intransitive) To cower or flinch.

   Molly shrank away from the blows of the whip.

4. (transitive) To draw back; to withdraw.
   • 1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 10:

     The Libyc Hammon ſhrinks his horn,

5. (intransitive, figuratively) To withdraw or retire, as from danger.
   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1881, Benjamin Jowett, transl., Thucydides:

     They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 169:

     The other patients in the ward, all but the Texan, shrank from him with a tenderhearted aversion from the moment they set eyes on him the morning after the night he had been sneaked in.

6. (intransitive) To move back or away, especially because of fear or disgust.

• (avoid an unwanted task): funk, shirk
• (withdraw or retire, as from danger): shrink back, retreat

• (antonym(s) of “to cause to become smaller”): expand, grow, enlarge, stretch
• (antonym(s) of “become smaller”): expand, grow, enlarge, stretch

shrink (plural shrinks)

1. Shrinkage; contraction; recoil.
   • 1818, Leigh Hunt, “To T** L** H**, Six Years Old, During a Sickness.”, in Foliage; […], London: Printed for C. and J. Ollier, Welbeck Street, page xlvii:

     Yet almost with, with sudden shrink, That I had less to praise.

2. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

   Synonyms: head-shrinker, shrinker

   Coordinate term: shrinkette

   You need to see a shrink, you crazy fool.

   My shrink said that he was an enabler, bad for me.

   • 1994 August, Green Day (lyrics and music), “Basket Case” (track 7), in Dookie, Reprise Records:

     I went to a shrink to analyze my dreams / She says it's lack of sex that's bringing me down

   • 2021 March 10, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 926, page 70:

     "From behind the counter of this provincial train station coffee shop, Joanna was barista and unofficial shrink to wildly varied London-bound travellers," writes author Laline Paull. Confessions of a Barista on Platform 1 was published on February 9 by The Firle Press [...].

3. (uncountable, business) Loss of inventory, for example due to shoplifting or not selling items before their expiration date.
   • 2011, Charles Sennewald, John Christman, Retail Crime, Security, and Loss Prevention: An Encyclopedic Reference, page 227:

     Assuming the retailer's shrink is average or below, and the owner is comfortable with the level of shrink, perhaps nothing more need be done except to maintain vigilance and to monitor the shrink for signs of emerging problems.

• (therapist): The slang sense was originally pejorative, expressing a distrust of practitioners in the field. It is now not as belittling or trivializing.

• “shrink”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “shrink”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Jonathon Green (2024) “shrink n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang