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when hard thereon he lay. Spenser. I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room. Bacon. Against this fire do I shrink up. Shak. And shrink like parchment in consuming fire. Dryden. All the boards did shrink. Coleridge.

The act of shrinking; a contraction into less bulk or measurement.

One who shrinks; one who withdraws from danger.

from Shrink. 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.

In a shrinking manner.

To shrink back with shuddering from; to regard with horror or detestation; to feel excessive repugnance toward; to detest to extremity; to loathe. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Rom. xii. 9.

To become checked in normal development, so as either to remain rudimentary or shrink away wholly; to become sterile.

To depress or discourage with fear; to impress with fear in such a manner that the mind shrinks, or loses its firmness; to overcome with sudden terror or horror; to dismay; as, the sight appalled the stoutest heart. The house of peers was somewhat appalled at this alarum. Clarendon.

Very modest, or modest excess; constitutionally disposed to shrink from public notice; indicating extreme or excessive modesty; shy; as, a bashful person, action, expression.

To shrink; to start back; to draw back, from lack of courage or resolution; to flinch; to quail. Blench not at thy chosen lot. Bryant. This painful, heroic task he undertook, and never blenched from its fulfillment. Jeffrey.

One who blenches, flinches, or shrinks back.

Forward to meet danger; venturesome; daring; not timorous or shrinking from risk; brave; courageous. Throngs of knights and barons bold. Milton.

To fall together suddenly, as the sides of a hollow vessel; to close by falling or shrinking together; to have the sides or parts of (a thing) fall in together, or be crushed in together; as, a flue in the boiler of a steam engine sometimes collapses. A balloon collapses when the gas escapes from it. Maunder.…

o draw together; to render narrower or smaller; to bind; to cramp; to contract or ause to shrink. Such things as constrict the fibers. Arbuthnot. Membranous organs inclosing a cavity which their contraction constrict. Todd & Bowman.

To dawn together; to contract; to force to contract itself; to constrict; to cause to shrink. [R.] Strong liquors . . . intoxicate, constringe, harden the fibers, and coagulate the fluids. Arbuthnot.

To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet. Years contracting to a moment. Wordsworth.

tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues. The heart's contractile force. H. Brooke. Each cilium seems to be composed of contractile substance. Hixley. Contractile vacuole (Zoöl.), a pulsating cavity in the interior…

The quality or property by which bodies shrink or contract.

The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendion; the contraction produced by cold.

Shrinking from approach or familiarity; reserved; bashful; shy; modest; -- usually applied to women, sometimes with an implication of coquetry. Coy, and difficult to win. Cowper. Coy and furtive graces. W. Irving. Nor the coy maid, half willings to be pressed, Shall kiss the cup, to pass it to the rest. Goldsmith.…