shrinking

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

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.
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            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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Shrinking \Shrink"ing\,
   a. & n. from {Shrink}.
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   {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}.
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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