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# shrinkage

«shrinkage» in Mova's school dictionary: **The amount by which something gets smaller** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (shrinkage — usually uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The amount by which something gets smaller. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#m1)

2) The process of getting smaller. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#m2)

3) (business) Goods lost from a shop through theft, damage or mistakes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science and everyday life, clothes and wood can shrink; shrinkage is how much smaller they get. In maths, shrinkage is a decrease, often given as a percentage: 5% shrinkage on a 100 cm cloth leaves 95 cm. Phrases: allow for shrinkage, percentage shrinkage.

### examples

- Wash it in cold water to avoid shrinkage. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#x1)
- The shrinkage of the jumper was 3 centimetres. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#x2)
- Buy a bigger size to allow for shrinkage. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#x3)
- Wood shows shrinkage as it dries. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#x4)
- Shops lose money through shrinkage. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#x5)
- If 10% shrinkage happens to 50 cm, it becomes 45 cm. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/shrinkage/#x6)

### note

From shrink (shrink, shrank, shrunk). In maths, shrinkage is a decrease: new size = old size − shrinkage.

### In the corpora

- [A vivid example: shops call stolen goods "shrinkage", as if the stock just got smaller by itself.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/3/)
- ["Shrinkage" is shop talk for goods lost to theft.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/42-olympiad-reading-between-the-lines/22/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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