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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.

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.…

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 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.…

Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility. "With cringe and shrug, and bow obsequious." Cowper.

Meanly shrinking from danger; cowardly; dastardly. "Their dastard souls." Addison.

as, to suffer distress from the gout, or from the loss of friends. Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress. Shak.

The process of cleansing, shrinking, and thickening cloth by moisture, heat, and pressure. Fulling mill, a mill for fulling cloth as by means of pesties or stampers, which alternately fall into and rise from troughs where the cloth is placed with hot water and fuller's earth, or other cleansing materials.…

A shrinking back through fear. [Colloq.] "The horrid panic, or funk (as the men of Eton call it)." De Quincey.

A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking; as, the recoil of nature, or of the blood.

Thin canvas glued on the inside of panels to prevent shrinking, checking, etc.

The act shrinking; shrinkage; contraction; also, recoil; withdrawal. Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink, That I had less to praise. Leigh Hunt.

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

One tanned by the sun. [R.] Hot summer's tanlings and The shrinking slaves of winter. Shak.

Not flinching or shrinking; unyielding. -- Un*flinch"ing*ly, adv.

shape; esp., to be twisted or bent out of a flat plane; as, a board warps in seasoning or shrinking. One of you will prove a shrunk panel, and, like green timber, warp, warp. Shak. They clamp one piece of wood to the end of another, to keep it from casting, or warping. Moxon.

A small ridge, prominence, or furrow formed by the shrinking or contraction of any smooth substance; a corrugation; a crease; a slight fold; as, wrinkle in the skin; a wrinkle in cloth. "The wrinkles in my brows." Shak. Within I do not find wrinkles and used heart, but unspent youth. Emerson.