shrank
Noun pluralshranks
Pluralshranks
- 1Past tense of shrink.
The glacier shrank dramatically over the past century.
Her savings shrank as prices kept rising.
Note
The past tense carries every sense of shrink, not only the literal one. A sweater shrank in the wash, but a person also shrank from a task or shrank back in fear. For the perfect, use shrunk after have (prices have shrunk). Shrunken now survives mainly as an adjective. The same spelling also names a Pennsylvania German wardrobe, an unrelated borrowing.
- 2A large, highly decorative piece of furniture in the German or Dutch style, combining features of a clothing wardrobe, a curio, and a cabinet.
Like combining a wardrobe with a glass-fronted curio cabinet in one imposing piece.
An ornately carved shrank dominated one wall of the farmhouse parlor.
Antique dealers prize these massive shranks for their inlaid doors and bold painted colors.
Note
A borrowing from Pennsylvania German, cognate with German Schrank, that belongs to the English of the Pennsylvania Dutch in the US. It behaves as an ordinary count noun with the regular plural shranks. It is best kept for the carved, decorated wardrobe-and-cabinet piece of that tradition rather than any plain cupboard.
Showing meanings only.
shrank is a form of shrink
shrink, verb: To become smaller in size or amount, or to make something smaller. Full entry
- Spelling
- shrink → shrank: irregular (no -ed)
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Origin
From Pennsylvania German, cognate with German Schrank.