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minister confession and absolution to; -- said of a priest as the agent. That they should shrive their parishioners. Piers Plowman. Doubtless he shrives this woman, . . . Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech. Shak. Till my guilty soul be shriven. Longfellow.

To draw, or be drawn, into wrinkles; to shrink, and form corrugations; as, a leaf shriveles in the hot sun; the skin shrivels with age; -- often with up.

p. p. of Shrive.

One who shrives; a confessor.

he growth of, and prevent from fruit-bearing, by some pernicious influence; to blight; to shrivel. Seven thin ears, and blasted with the east wind. Gen. xii. 6.

Consisting of, or like, cork; dry shriveled up. Bind fast hiss corky arms. Shak.

To shrivel or wither; to lose vitality. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. I Kings xiii. 4.

An old shriveled woman. [Slang, Eng.] Fagot iron, iron, in bars or masses, manufactured from fagots. -- Fagot vote, the vote of a person who has been constituted a voter by being made a landholder, for party purposes. [Political cant, Eng.]

Full; abundant; plenteous; not shriveled. [Obs.] His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse grew fulsome, fair, and fresh. Golding.

om gout. -- Gouty kidney, an affection occurring during the progress of gout, the kidney shriveling and containing concretions of urate of sodium.

To dry to extremity; to shrivel with heat; as, the mouth is parched from fever. The ground below is parched. Dryden.

Shriveled or shrunken; -- said especially of grain which has lost its juices from the ravages of insects, such as the wheat midge, or Trips (Thrips cerealium).

To contract into wrinkles; to shrivel; to shrink; as, riveled fruit; riveled flowers. [Obs.] Pope. "Riveled parchments." Walpole.

To burn superficially; to parch, or shrivel, the surface of, by heat; to subject to so much heat as changes color and texture without consuming; as, to scorch linen. Summer drouth or singed air never scorch thy tresses fair. Milton.

Burning; parching or shriveling with heat. -- Scorch"ing*ly, adv. -- Scorch"ing*ness, n.

To cause to shrink or shrivel with cold; to benumb. [Prov. Eng.]

To shrive; to question. [Obs.] "She gan him soft to shrieve." Spenser.

To wrinkle, bend, or curl; to shrivel; hence, to contract into a less extent or compass; to gather together; to become compacted. And on a broken reed he still did stay His feeble steps, which shrunk when hard thereon he lay. Spenser. I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room.…

imp. of Shrive. Shrove Sunday, Quinguagesima Sunday. -- Shrove Tuesday, the Tuesday following Quinguagesima Sunday, and preceding the first day of Lent, or Ash Wednesday.

To make a hissing sound; to fry, or to dry and shrivel up, with a hissing sound. [Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U. S.] Forby.