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# shrink

«shrink» in Mova's school dictionary: **to get smaller, or to make something smaller** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (shrink, shrinks, shrank, shrunk, shrinking); noun (shrink — informal word for a mental health doctor)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To shrink means to get smaller, or to make something smaller. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#m1)

2) Clothes can shrink when they are washed in hot water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#m2)

3) To shrink back or shrink away is to move back because you are afraid. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In maths: a decrease in size or amount; the new size is the old size minus the change; «shrank to 25» gives the new size, «shrank by 4» gives the change; scaling a shape down. In science: most things shrink when they get cold and grow when warm. In stories: Alice shrank after drinking from a bottle. Phrases: shrink by, shrink to, shrink in the wash, shrink away.

### examples

- The sweater shrank by 4 cm. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x1)
- The pond shrinks 2 cm each day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x2)
- How long is the shirt after it shrinks? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x3)
- The class shrank from 30 to 25 pupils. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x4)
- My jumper shrank in the hot wash. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x5)
- Alice drank from the bottle and began to shrink. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x6)
- Metal shrinks a little when it gets cold. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x7)
- The puddle shrank in the hot sun. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x8)
- "Will the dog bite me?" asked Proserpina, shrinking closer to Pluto. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/#x9)

### note

Irregular verb: shrink, shrank, shrunk. Opposite: grow, expand, stretch. Means take away: new = old − shrink. Trap: «shrank to 25» gives the new size, not the change.

### In the corpora

- [Rent is often a family's biggest bill, so when it goes up, other spending has to shrink.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/6-paying-for-a-home-and-the-bills/9/)
- [Tense music, close-ups and slow motion make ordinary mistakes feel dangerous; turn the sound down and the drama shrinks.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/54-reality-tv-what-is-staged-and-what-is-real/13/)
- [Ants are strong for their size because weight shrinks faster than strength as an animal gets smaller.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/304-ants-of-the-world-weaver-ants-bullet-ants-honeypot-ants-and-trap-jaw-ants/7/)
- [When climates changed, forests shrank and, in some places, people arrived and hunted, so many giants died out.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/5/)
- [Earlier, Alice nibbles a mushroom to grow and shrink and talks with a hookah-smoking Caterpillar.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/402-wonderland-sea-creatures-and-made-up-ones-lobster-whiting-turtle-mock-turtle-gryphon/4/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «shrink» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrink/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.