shrunken

adjective

shrunk·​en ˈshrəŋ-kən 

ˈsrəŋ-

: reduced in size : made less or smaller

After he'd lost nearly thirty pounds, his shrunken face disclosed itself to us as a replica of my elderly grandmother's …

—Philip Roth

… I had … a closet filled with shrunken clothes I'd blasted in the dryer …

—Caitlin Moscatello

… minerals and salts are more and more concentrated in the shrunken stream as it evaporates under the southwestern Sun.

—Jonathan Weiner

A netbook is a laptop with a shrunken screen, an undersize keyboard and a processor that's so slow, you'd have laughed at it in 2007.

—David Pogue

Yet the reality is that the public finances are going to be in an even bigger mess and the economy more shrunken than in the economic crisis of 2008/09.

—Ross Clark

… millions of people are unable to afford mortgage payments on homes with shrunken values.

—Arthur Delaney

The shrunken national attention span that television has fostered will probably reduce significantly the readership for this massive biography …

—Harry F. Waters

Examples of shrunken in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

New York’s Dante offers two separate flights of three shrunken down spins on its Negronis, each clocking in at just two ounces. —Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 23 Apr. 2025

As the fentanyl took hold, the harsh and shrunken reality of her circumstances gradually softened. —Geoff Dyer, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025

But O’Leary said shrunken windows are warping ultimate box office success and consumer demand. —Samantha Masunaga, Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2025

Mummification occurs when dead tissue turns into a hard shrunken mass, often from dehydration. —Vanessa Etienne, People.com, 28 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

from past participle of shrink entry 1

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for shrunken

• drunken
• sunken