Word.ws English Dictionary

shrink up

shrink up verb: to contract or shrink completely; shrivel up.

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To contract or shrink completely; shrivel up.
    • Then, at the blast of his noble heart, the bad angel shrunk up into nothingness; and the good one defined itself clearer and more clear, and came nigher and more nigh to him, smiling sadly but benignantly […]1852, Melville, Pierre, Book 3

Forms of shrink up

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

Questions about shrink up

What does shrink up mean?
Shrink up means to contract or shrink completely; shrivel up.
What part of speech is shrink up?
Shrink up is a verb.
What is the past tense of shrink up?
The past tense of shrink up is shrank up.

Words near shrink up in the dictionary

  1. shrink down
  2. shrink rate
  3. shrink rates
  4. shrink ray
  5. shrink rays
  6. shrink up
  7. shrink-swell
  8. shrink-wrap
  9. shrink-wrap license
  10. shrink-wrap licenses
  11. shrink-wrapped

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrink up (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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