shrink away

shrink + away

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

1. To draw back in fear; cringe, back down, shy away.
   • 1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, chapter 1, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine:

     But Tommy was bashful, and the attention he had thus drawn upon himself made him blush. He was a timid lad and he shrank away now, evidently fearing Shell.

   • 1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon:

     Emily could be fearless enough on occasion; but in the presence of a nature which she instinctively felt to be hostile to hers she shrank away in something that was more repulsion than fear.