Word.ws English Dictionary

shrivel up

shrivel up verb: to become completely shriveled; to completely dry up and become wrinkled.

Verb

shrivel up (third-person singular simple present shrivels up, present participle (US) shriveling up or (UK) shrivelling up, simple past and past participle (US) shriveled up or (UK) shrivelled up)

  1. To become completely shriveled; to completely dry up and become wrinkled.
    • "Look! - look! - look! she's shrivelling up! she's turning into a monkey!" and down he fell upon the ground, foaming and gnashing in a fit.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

Forms of shrivel up

third-person singular presentshrivels up
present participle USshriveling up
present participle UKshrivelling up
past participle USshriveled up
past USshriveled up
past participle UKshrivelled up
past UKshrivelled up

Questions about shrivel up

What does shrivel up mean?
Shrivel up means to become completely shriveled; to completely dry up and become wrinkled.
What part of speech is shrivel up?
Shrivel up is a verb.
What is the past tense of shrivel up?
The past tense of shrivel up is shriveled up.

Words near shrivel up in the dictionary

  1. shrivalty
  2. shrivatsa
  3. shrive
  4. shrived
  5. shrivel
  6. shrivel up
  7. shriveled
  8. shriveled up
  9. shriveler
  10. shrivelers
  11. shriveling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrivel 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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