Shrink vs Belittle - What's the difference?
shrink | belittle |
To cause to become smaller.
To become smaller; to contract.
* Francis Bacon
* Dryden
To cower or flinch.
To draw back; to withdraw.
* Milton
(figuratively) To withdraw or retire, as from danger.
* Alexander Pope
* Jowett (Thucyd.)
shrinkage; contraction; recoil
(slang, sometimes, pejorative) A psychiatrist or therapist; a head-shrinker.
* 1994 , (Green Day),
To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is.
* {{quote-book, year=2006
, author=Mark Steyn
, title=America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It
, chapter=9
, isbn=0895260786
, page=201
, passage=Under the rules as understood by the New York Times'', the West is free to mock and belittle''' its Judeo-Christian inheritance, and, likewise, the Muslim world is free to mock and ' belittle the West's Judeo-Christian inheritance.}}
As verbs the difference between shrink and belittle
is that shrink is to cause to become smaller while belittle is to knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is.As a noun shrink
is shrinkage; contraction; recoil.shrink
English
Verb
- The dryer shrank my sweater.
- This garment will shrink when wet.
- I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room.
- And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.
- Molly shrank away from the blows of the whip.
- The Libya Hammon shrinks his horn.
- What happier natures shrink at with affright, / The hard inhabitant contends is right.
- They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task.
Synonyms
* (avoid an unwanted task) funk, shirkAntonyms
* (to cause to become smaller) expand, grow, enlarge, stretch * (become smaller) expand, grow, enlarge, stretchNoun
(en noun)- Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink , / That I had less to praise. — Leigh Hunt.
- You need to see a shrink .
- My shrink said that he was an enabler, bad for me.
- I went to a shrink , to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing my down.''
