shrink

verb

1. (transitive)To cause to become smaller.

   “The dryer shrank my sweater.”

   “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.”

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

   “And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.”

   “Since 1982, it has shrunk by 250 meters.”

   “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.

   “The Libyc Hammon ſhrinks his horn,”

5. (figuratively, intransitive)To withdraw or retire, as from danger.

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

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

   “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.

noun

1. Shrinkage; contraction; recoil.

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

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

   “You need to see a shrink, you crazy fool.”

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

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

   “"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)Loss of inventory, for example due to shoplifting or not selling items before their expiration date.

   “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.”