Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A preterit of shrink.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • imp. of shrink.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past of shrink.
  • noun US A large highly decorative Dutch or German-style piece of furniture, which combines aspects of a clothing wardrobe, curio, and cabinet.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See shrink

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Pennsylvania German; cognate to German Schrank.

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Examples

  • Her own loyalty was threatening to weaken, and she shuddered and shrank from the contempt she could see creeping in.

    CHAPTER XIII 2010

  • She dropped to 149 pounds over time and shrank from a size 28 to a size 8.

    Doctors join fight against obesity 2009

  • That he afterward shrank from the pursuit of perfection seems inarguable.

    Orson Agonistes 2006

  • That he afterward shrank from the pursuit of perfection seems inarguable.

    Orson Agonistes 2006

  • Having done so, he asked the House of Commons for its approval and never shrank from a vote of censure.

    Democracy vs. Hypocrisy 1986

  • There were those who shrank from the surgery necessary to cut that cancer out of the nation.

    Abraham Lincoln 1925

  • He said scarcely a word; it was as though his unhappiness merely craved company and shrank from the knowledge of what the night might bring.

    The Windy Hill 1922

  • But at the same time he was dreading the meeting; he shrank from the thought of looking into Jack's eyes, cold – even scornful.

    The Black Moth: A Romance of the XVIII Century 1921

  • I shrank from the thought of the boy being taken away from us.

    Further Chronicles of Avonlea Lucy Maud 1920

  • I cannot convey any idea of how distasteful the thing was to me; of how I shrank from the unpleasant conspicuousness of walking down a street lined with spectators.

    Aleta Dey 1919

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