adj, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   simple past and past participle of shrivel UK, form-of, participle, past

Adjective

1. 1
   Wrinkled because the volume has reduced while the surface area of the outer layer has remained constant. UK

   "A prune is a shrivelled plum."

2. 2
   Collapsed in size. UK

Adjective

1. 1
   reduced in efficacy or vitality or intensity wordnet
2. 2
   lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness wordnet
3. 3
   (used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

decreaseddried-upsearsereshriveledshriveled

Example

More examples

"Mary shrivelled Tom with one glance."

Etymology

Equivalent to shrivel + -ed.

Related phrases

shrivel upsurface area

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.