Word.ws English Dictionary

shrink away

shrink away verb: to draw back in fear; cringe, back down, shy away.

Verb

shrink away (third-person singular simple present shrinks away, present participle shrinking away, simple past shrank away or shrunk away, past participle shrunk away or shrunken away)

  1. To draw back in fear; cringe, back down, shy away.
    • But Tommy was bashful, and the attention he had thus drawn upon himself made him blush. He was a timid lad and he shrank away now, evidently fearing Shell.1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, chapter 1, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine
    • Emily could be fearless enough on occasion; but in the presence of a nature which she instinctively felt to be hostile to hers she shrank away in something that was more repulsion than fear.1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon

Forms of shrink away

third-person singular presentshrinks away
present participleshrinking away
pastshrank away
pastshrunk away
past participleshrunk away
past participleshrunken away

Origin of shrink away

shrink + away

Questions about shrink away

What does shrink away mean?
Shrink away means to draw back in fear; cringe, back down, shy away.
What part of speech is shrink away?
Shrink away is a verb.
What is the past tense of shrink away?
The past tense of shrink away is shrank away.

Words near shrink away in the dictionary

  1. Shriners
  2. shrines
  3. Shringar Nagar
  4. shrining
  5. shrink
  6. shrink away
  7. shrink back
  8. shrink band
  9. shrink down
  10. shrink rate
  11. shrink rates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrink away (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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