Becomes smaller in size or amount; also slang for psychiatrists or psychotherapists.
From Old English 'scrincan,' meaning to contract or wrinkle. The noun sense of 'shrink' as a doctor comes from mid-20th century American slang, possibly from 'headshrinker,' a joking reference to psychological work on the mind.
It's wild that 'shrink' started as a crude joke about psychiatrists shrinking heads (meaning treating mental problems), and now it's so accepted that most people forget it was slang—language has a way of making jokes so normal we forget they were ever funny.
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