shriveled
Definition
- Adjective:
- Reduced in size, volume, or vitality due to loss of moisture, aging, or illness: Describes something that has become wrinkled, contracted, and often less effective or vigorous.
- Dried up and withered, especially regarding vegetation: Describes plants or leaves that have lost all moisture and become dry and dead.
Examples of Usage
- Adjective:
- The shriveled apple had been left in the sun for weeks.
- After the long drought, the crops were completely shriveled.
- His shriveled hand showed the effects of the disease.
Advanced Usage
- "shriveled up": An emphatic form meaning to become completely dry and wrinkled.
- The flowers shriveled up without water.
Variants and Related Words
- Shrivel (verb): To contract and wrinkle, often due to loss of moisture.
- Leaves shrivel in the autumn heat.
- Shrunken (adjective): Having been reduced in size. Often used interchangeably with 'shriveled'.
- Withered (adjective): Dried up and faded, often used for plants or body parts.
- Wizened (adjective): Shriveled or wrinkled with age.
- Sere (adjective): (Literary) Dry or withered.
Synonyms
- Withered
- Wizened
- Desiccated
- Atrophied
- Shrunken
Related Phrases
- To shrivel away: To gradually diminish or waste away.
- Without funding, the program shrivelled away.
Adjective
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reduced in efficacy or vitality or intensity
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our shriveled receipts during the storm
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as the project wore on she found her enthusiasm shriveled
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the dollar's shrunken buying power
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lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
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the old woman's shriveled skin
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he looked shriveled and ill
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a shrunken old man
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a lanky scarecrow of a man with withered face and lantern jaws-W.F.Starkie
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he did well despite his withered arm
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a wizened little man with frizzy grey hair
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(used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture
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dried-up grass
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the desert was edged with sere vegetation
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shriveled leaves on the unwatered seedlings
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withered vines
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