shrunken
shrunken Lexical Profile
shrunken Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Having become smaller or more compacted in size, volume, or extent than before.
"He pulled the shrunken wool sweater out of the dryer with a sigh."
Wrinkled, sunken, or wasted away in appearance, typically due to age, illness, or dehydration.
"The patient's shrunken cheeks indicated weeks of severe malnutrition."
• verb
To become or cause to become smaller in size, amount, or value (past participle of shrink).
"The lake had shrunken to a fraction of its former size during the prolonged drought."
Word Nuance & Usage
In modern standard English, 'shrunken' is primarily used as an attributive adjective before a noun (e.g., 'a shrunken sweater'), whereas 'shrunk' is typically preferred as the past participle in perfect verb tenses (e.g., 'the sweater has shrunk').
• Rhymes for shrunken
Word Origin & Etymology
Derived from Old English 'scruncan', the past participle of the strong verb 'scrincan' (to contract or wither), from Proto-Germanic '*skrinkwana'.