Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use shrivel in a sentence

22 example sentences · verb

Shrivel means to collapse inward; to crumble. Example: “The plant shrivelled from lack of water.”

Examples of shrivel by meaning

verbTo collapse inward; to crumble.

  • The plant shrivelled from lack of water.
  • This Upside Down economy was the product, Hansen said, of a shriveling population, the closing of the frontier and the maturing of industries.2019 August 13, Greg Rosalsky, “Is Our Economy In The Upside Down?”, in NPR, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2020

verbTo become wrinkled.

  • His fingers were shriveled from being in the bath for too long.

verbTo draw into wrinkles.

  • The hot sun shrivelled the leaves.

More sentences with shrivel

  • Her lips looked too shriveled to close over her teeth.From the entry shriveled
  • A prune is a shrivelled plum.From the entry shrivelled
  • A prune is a shriveled plum.From the entry shriveled
  • Whoever Jess was before will shrivel away, and a new person will molt—so to speak—into its place.2025, Andrew Joseph White, chapter 2, in You Weren't Meant to Be Human: A Novel. From the entry moult
  • Nestled within was a shriveled forearm, crowned with a withery brown hand.2014, Hugo Valentin Negron, Forging of a Knight: Prison Planet of the Mah-Lahkt, page 335. From the entry withery
  • He will shrivel and drift before the first clean draught that blows unhampered across the ruins.”2008 February 5, Loren D. Estleman, Port Hazard: A Page Murdock Novel, →ISBN, page 261. From the entry smote
  • After picking, they're left to "raisinate" (dry and shrivel) on straw mats.2005, Kevin Zraly, Windows On The World Complete Wine Course. From the entry raisinate
  • 'Although the lemon is now black and shrivelled the motor is still going strong.1997, New Scientist, volume 154, page 105. From the entry go
  • Dirt roads octopussed into the interior, where there were more dried mud and shrivelled crops.1997, The Unesco Courier - Volume 50, Issues 1-6, page 33. From the entry octopus
  • Which grotesque auld hing-oot will the shrivelled post-menopausal slag want tae shaft?1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 252. From the entry shaft
  • Without them, Christianity could not be, Catholicism would shrivel into antiquedom.1990, John Carmody, Roman Catholicism: An Introduction. From the entry antiquedom
  • The bra top, which had what were called “molded plastic cups,” had shriveled and shrunk to a very small size.2000, Nicolyn Rajala, Some Like It Hot: The Sauna, Its Lore and Stories, St. Cloud, Minn.: North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc., published…. From the entry waffley
  • A time-jump shows the once natural, statuesque Martin shriveled by wealth, fame, and substance—his hair is bleached blond, his teeth are stained.2020 October 13, Beatrice Loayza, “Jack London gets an Italian makeover in the tragic and romantic Martin Eden”, in AV Club. From the entry time jump
  • It will speed the shrivelling of the patrician “one nation” Tories, who tried to curb the extremes of Thatcherism and ended by providing its veils.1995, New Statesman Society. From the entry patrician
  • Where Manning's torch diva turns on Sings with the Original Artists shriveled up against spare backing, here they nestle into a winking popadelic hybrid.1995 November, Terri Sutton, “Records: S.F. Seals”, in Spin, volume 11, number 8, page 120. From the entry popadelic
  • She was skinny and white, slight, with a drawn-in pale face, huge round unmakeupped eyes, and puffy cheeks that gave creases to her shriveled, no lipped mouth.2015, Duane Filer, Square Squire and the Journey to DreamState: Squared Version 2.0 for Teens and Young Adults. From the entry unmakeupped
  • The problem of triticale seed shrivelling was treated in another different way, by starting a process of plasmagenic mutagenesis that perhaps it is interesting to describe.2012 December 6, Henrique Guedes-Pinto, Norman Darvey, Valdemar P. Carnide, Triticale: Today and Tomorrow, Springer Science & Business…. From the entry plasmagenic
  • I'm riddled at the hips and knees, roundsided as parentheses since my shrunken spine has known osteoporosis and my extremities have shriveled into lacy filigrees, breakable as glass on stone.1997, The American Scholar - Volume 66, page 120. From the entry roundsided

Meaning of shrivel

  1. verb To collapse inward; to crumble.
  2. verb To become wrinkled.
  3. verb To draw into wrinkles.

Full definition of shrivel

Questions about shrivel in a sentence

How do you use shrivel in a sentence?
Shrivel is used as a verb. For example: “The plant shrivelled from lack of water.”
What is a short sentence with shrivel?
“A prune is a shriveled plum.”
What does shrivel mean?
Shrivel means to collapse inward; to crumble.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrivel (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use shrivel in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/shrivel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.