different between shrink vs winkle

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

Wikispecies

Etymology

Short for periwinkle.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

winkle (plural winkles)

1. A periwinkle or its shell, of family Littorinidae.
   • 1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, a Description of the Body of Man, London: William Jaggard, Book 8, Chapter 25, p. 610,^[1]

     […] because the inward Eare is intorted like a winkle-shell, and hangeth as a bell in thee steeple of the body, it easily perceiueth all appulsions of the Ayre.

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, London: G. Newbold, Volume 1, p. 64,^[2]

     Shrimps and winkles are the staple commodities of the afternoon trade, which lasts from three to half-past five in the evening. These articles are generally bought by the working-classes for their tea.

   • 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz, Chapter 25, p. 181,^[3]

     Sometimes late at night men would come in with a pail of winkles they had bought cheap, and share them out.

   • 2001, Ian McEwen, Atonement, Toronto: Vintage Canada, Chapter 13,^[4]

     Briony was on her knees, trying to put her arms round Lola and gather her to her, but the body was bony and unyielding, wrapped tight about itself like a seashell. A winkle.

2. Any one of various marine spiral gastropods, especially, in the United States, either of two species Busycotypus canaliculata and Busycon carica.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:winkle.
3. (children's slang) The penis, especially that of a boy rather than that of a man.

Derived terms

• winkle-picker

Synonyms

• (Littorinidae): oyster drill
• (Busycon and Busycotypus spp.): Fulgar carica, Busycon canaliculata
• (childish: the penis): See also Thesaurus:penis

Translations

Verb

winkle (third-person singular simple present winkles, present participle winkling, simple past and past participle winkled)

1. To extract.

See also

• winkle out

Anagrams

• Wilken, welkin