SHRINK FROM

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does shrink from mean? 

• SHRINK FROM (verb)
  The verb SHRINK FROM has 1 sense:

1. avoid (one's assigned duties)

  Familiarity information: SHRINK FROM used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHRINK FROM (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Avoid (one's assigned duties)

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

fiddle; goldbrick; shirk; shrink from

Context example:

The derelict soldier shirked his duties

Hypernyms (to "shrink from" is one way to...):

avoid (refrain from doing something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "shrink from"):

scrimshank (British military language: avoid work)

malinger; skulk (avoid responsibilities and duties, e.g., by pretending to be ill)

slack (avoid responsibilities and work, be idle)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

There may be a solemn duty; and if it come we must not shrink from it....

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

They might shrink from actual violence at the last.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Why shrink from us, then, as though we were the spawn of the Evil One?”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Could you shrink from so simple an adventure?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I was anxious and watchful, while my right hand grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom; every sound terrified me, but I resolved that I would sell my life dearly and not shrink from the conflict until my own life or that of my adversary was extinguished.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Its only sign of animation was to shrink from mine; and then she glided from the chair, and creeping to the other side of her uncle, bowed herself, silently and trembling still, upon his breast.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Anne did not shrink from it; on the contrary, she truly felt as she said, in observing—I think you are very likely to suffer the most of the two; your feelings are less reconciled to the change than mine.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her: in your quiet moments you should have no watcher and no nurse but me; and I could hang over you with untiring tenderness, though you gave me no smile in return; and never weary of gazing into your eyes, though they had no longer a ray of recognition for me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The new research results forecast that at current carbon dioxide emission rates, the depth at which some shelled organisms can survive will shrink from an average of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) to just 150 meters (492 feet) by the year 2100, a drastic reduction in habitat.

(Marine organisms in Southern Ocean will face shallower zone for life, National Science Foundation)

We should neither of us shrink from the task—awful though it be to contemplate.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)