0 a reduction in the size of something, or the process of becoming smaller:
Synthetic fabrics are less susceptible to shrinkage than natural ones.
Research increasingly shows a substantial thinning of Arctic ice and 5 percent shrinkage in its overall cover.
1 the act or process of becoming smaller:
Financial support for the university has undergone substantial shrinkage.
2 the process or amount by which something becomes smaller or less:
Conservatives are not happy about the private sector's shrinkage and the public sector's expansion.
shrinkage in sth A permanent shrinkage in supplies would severely damage today's oil-based economy.
shrinkage of sth He expects employment to grow by 1.9% this year compared to a shrinkage of 0.4% last year.
sales/deficit/brand shrinkage Two years of double-digit sales shrinkage have hurt the industry.
3 the loss of goods for sale because of damage, stealing, etc.:
High doses of B vitamins may slow the rate of brain shrinkage in older people.
The town is built on clay soil and this is slowly drying out and causing shrinkage.
The treatment caused a 50 percent or greater shrinkage of tumors in 19 percent of patients.
Why should we then enforce shrinkage if the data provide evidence that some special high-frequency components are statistically significant or unlikely to be noise?
The nuclei of some of them express signs of shrinkage and pyknotic degeneration.
There had been notable shrinkage in the community over the years, evidenced by many closed shops.
Although induction chemotherapy can produce tumour shrinkage, benefit in terms of local control and survival has been generally disappointing.
The demand for estate hands was, of course, insufficient to offset the shrinkage of farm work.
