different between fearful vs shrinking

English

Alternative forms

• fearefull (obsolete)
• fearfull (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• Rhymes: -???f?l
• Hyphenation: fear?ful

Adjective

fearful (comparative fearfuller or fearfuler or more fearful, superlative fearfullest or fearfulest or most fearful)

1. Frightening.
2. Tending to fear; timid.

   a fearful boy

3. (dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
4. (now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]

Synonyms

• (frightened): frightened, timid, timorous
• See also Thesaurus:afraid and Thesaurus:cowardly

Translations

Adverb

fearful (comparative more fearful, superlative most fearful)

1. (dialect) Extremely; fearfully.

Further reading

• fearful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fearful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Lauffer

English

Etymology

shrink +? -ing.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?????k??/
• Hyphenation: shrink?ing

Verb

shrinking

1. present participle of shrink

Noun

shrinking (plural shrinkings)

1. The act of one who, or that which, shrinks; act of becoming smaller or moving timidly away.
   • 1822, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal (volume 6, page 10)

     […] the silent grief beyond the power of words—the generous consolations of the noble sister—the shrinkings of the poor criminal, and his relapsings into a gentler penitence […]