Word.ws English Dictionary

shrivelled

shrivelled adjective: wrinkled because the volume has reduced while the surface area of the outer layer has remained constant. Also the simple past and past participle of shrivel.

Adjective

shrivelled (comparative more shrivelled, superlative most shrivelled)

  1. (UK) Wrinkled because the volume has reduced while the surface area of the outer layer has remained constant.
    • A prune is a shrivelled plum.
    • All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.1847 December, Acton Bell [pseudonym; Anne Brontë], “The Parsonage”, in Agnes Grey. […], London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 1
  2. (UK) Collapsed in size.

Also used as

shrivelled is also the simple past and past participle of shrivel.

Forms of shrivelled

comparativemore shrivelled
superlativemost shrivelled
alternative formshriveled

Origin of shrivelled

Equivalent to shrivel + -ed.

Words formed from shrivelled

Phrases with shrivelled

Questions about shrivelled

What does shrivelled mean?
Shrivelled means wrinkled because the volume has reduced while the surface area of the outer layer has remained constant.
What part of speech is shrivelled?
Shrivelled is an adjective.

Words near shrivelled in the dictionary

  1. shriveler
  2. shrivelers
  3. shriveling
  4. shriveling up
  5. shrivelings
  6. shrivelled
  7. shrivelled up
  8. shriveller
  9. shrivellers
  10. shrivelleth
  11. shrivelling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrivelled (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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