English

Noun

shrinker ‎(plural shrinkers)

1. Something that makes something else shrink.
2. (slang) A psychiatrist; a head-shrinker.
3. (medicine) An sock-like article used to compress a stump remaining after amputation.
4. One who shrinks or recoils.
   • 1881, Aston Leigh, chapter 4, in The Story of Philosophy, London: Trübner & Co., page 27:

     His peculiar character of shrinker from everything and every one, always retreating into his shell of contemptuous opposition as a snail into his shell, led, perhaps, to his rejection of ordinary phraseology, the simple mode of expression used by the million.

   • 1923, The Pharmaceutical era:

     Mr. Druggist, are you a shrinker? Hold a minute now — before getting excited. A late dictionary defines a shrinker in a general sense as one who recoils, or draws back fearfully from something dreaded.

5. Something that itself shrinks.
   • 1956, Beverley Nichols, Sunlight on the Lawn, page 73:

     Sometimes I think that humanity is divided into two classes, the Shrinkers and the non-Shrinkers. If you are a Shrinker, you are able to diminish yourself at will, and to slip into the kingdom of Lilliput, not in the role of Gulliver,

   • 1996, Maurice J. Elias, Social problem solving: interventions in the schools, page 49:

     These can be called the Blaster (aggressive), the Shrinker (overly passive), or the Me (effective).

   • 1959 April 26, “Dieter or Wishful Shrinker?”, in Los Angeles Times:

     Are you a wishful shrinker? If you haven't dieted because you just plain like good food […]

Derived terms

• head-shrinker