Word.ws English Dictionary

head-shrinker

head-shrinker noun: a psychiatrist or psychotherapist; a shrink.

Noun

head-shrinker (plural head-shrinkers)

  1. (slang) A psychiatrist or psychotherapist; a shrink.
    • DIESEL: In the opinion on this court, this child is depraved on account he ain't had a normal home. ACTION: Hey, I'm depraved on account I'm deprived. DIESEL: So take him to a headshrinker.1957, West Side Story
  2. (literally) One who shrinks heads, as previously done by some Amazon tribes.
    • I listened to the sculptor of Dead Dad give an interview to a European television station while he crouched by the shrunken corpse of his own creation, a huge technical advance over the headshrinkers of New Guinea.2010, Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It

head-shrinker meaning in Kannada

head-shrinker in Kannada

ತಲೆಶಿಕಾರಿ, ಮನೋವೈದ್ಯ, ಮನೋವ್ಯಾಧಿ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸಕ

Synonyms of head-shrinker

Forms of head-shrinker

pluralhead-shrinkers
alternative formheadshrinker

Origin of head-shrinker

Originally US, probably by reference to slang terms like “swelled head” for someone with delusions of grandeur; a psychiatrist would remove such delusions, thus figuratively shrinking the patient's swelled head.

Questions about head-shrinker

What does head-shrinker mean?
Head-shrinker means a psychiatrist or psychotherapist; a shrink.
What is head-shrinker in Kannada?
Head-shrinker in Kannada is ತಲೆಶಿಕಾರಿ, ಮನೋವೈದ್ಯ, ಮನೋವ್ಯಾಧಿ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸಕ. See Head-shrinker meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is head-shrinker?
Head-shrinker is a noun.
What is the plural of head-shrinker?
The plural of head-shrinker is head-shrinkers.

Words near head-shrinker in the dictionary

  1. head-scarves
  2. head-scratcher
  3. head-scratchers
  4. head-scratching
  5. head-scratchings
  6. head-shrinker
  7. head-shrinkers
  8. head-shy
  9. Head-Smashed-In
  10. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
  11. head-space

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: head-shrinker (page history and authors); head-shrinker (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-head-shrinker.ogg.

Cite this entry: “head-shrinker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/head-shrinker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.