different between shrink vs stickle

English

Etymology

From Middle English shrinken, from Old English s?rincan, from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwan?. Cognate with Dutch schrinken (“to shrink”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?????k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To cause to become smaller.
2. (intransitive) To become smaller; to contract.
   • And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.

   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

     Since 1982, it has shrunk by 250 meters.

3. (intransitive) To cower or flinch.

4. (transitive) To draw back; to withdraw.
5. (intransitive, figuratively) To withdraw or retire, as from danger.
   • 1881, Benjamin Jowett (translator), Thucydides

     They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task.

6. (intransitive) To move back or away, especially because of fear or disgust.

Synonyms

• (avoid an unwanted task): funk, shirk
• (withdraw or retire, as from danger): shrink back, retreat

Antonyms

• (to cause to become smaller): expand, grow, enlarge, stretch
• (become smaller): expand, grow, enlarge, stretch

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

shrink (plural shrinks)

1. Shrinkage; contraction; recoil.
2. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

   Synonym: head-shrinker

3. (uncountable, business) Loss of inventory, for example due to shoplifting or not selling items before their expiration date.
   • 2011, Charles Sennewald & John Christman, Retail Crime, Security, and Loss Prevention: An Encyclopedic Reference, p. 227:

     Assuming the retailer's shrink is average or below, and the owner is comfortable with the level of shrink, perhaps nothing more need be done except to maintain vigilance and to monitor the shrink for signs of emerging problems.

Usage notes

• (therapist): The slang sense was originally pejorative, expressing a distrust of practitioners in the field. It is now not as belittling or trivializing.

Translations

References

• shrink at OneLook Dictionary Search
• shrink in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?st?k(?)l/
• Rhymes: -?k?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English *stikel, *stykyl (in compounds), from Old English sticel (“a prickle, sting, goad”), from Proto-Germanic *stiklaz, *stikilaz (“sting, stinger, peak, cup, goblet”).

Noun

stickle (plural stickles)

1. A sharp point; prickle; a spine

Derived terms

• stickleback

Etymology 2

From Middle English stikel, from Old English sticel, sticol (“high, lofty, steep, reaching great heights, inaccessible”), from Proto-Germanic *stikulaz, *stikkulaz (“high, steep”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to stick; peak”).

Adjective

stickle (comparative more stickle, superlative most stickle)

1. steep; high; inaccessible
2. (Britain, dialect) high, as the water of a river; swollen; sweeping; rapid

Noun

stickle (plural stickles)

1. (Britain, dialect) A shallow rapid in a river.
2. (Britain, dialect) The current below a waterfall.
   • 1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals

     Patient anglers, standing all the day / Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay.

Etymology 3

From a variant of stightle (“to order, arrange, direct”), from Middle English stightelen, sti?tlen, stihilen, stihlen, equivalent to stight (“to order, rule, govern”) +? -le (frequentative suffix).

Verb

stickle (third-person singular simple present stickles, present participle stickling, simple past and past participle stickled)

1. (obsolete) To act as referee or arbiter; to mediate.
2. (now rare) To argue or struggle for.
   • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew

     ‘She has other people than poor little you to think about, and has gone abroad with them; so you needn’t be in the least afraid she’ll stickle this time for her rights.’

3. To raise objections; to argue stubbornly, especially over minor or trivial matters.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     Miserable new Berline! Why could not Royalty go in some old Berline similar to that of other men? Flying for life, one does not stickle about his vehicle.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants.
   • 1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses' Elizium

     Which [question] violently they pursue, / Nor stickled would they be.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening.
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To separate combatants by intervening.

   • When he [the angel] sees half of the Christians are already killed, and all the rest in a fair way to be routed, [he]stickles betwixt the remainders of God’s host, and the race of fiends.

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To contend, contest, or altercate, especially in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds.

   • Fortune, as she’s wont, turned fickle, / And for the foe began to stickle.

   • 1684, John Dryden, To The Disappointment

     for paltry punk they roar and stickle

   • c. 1817, William Hazlitt, Character of John Bull

     the obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong

Derived terms

• stickler

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Stickel, Tickles, icklest, lickest, tickles