shrinker

plural shrinkers

1. Something that makes something else shrink.

   It's been an everyday sight on the East Coast Main Line since it started testing in 1977... but no longer. They may have been marketed as the 'Journey shrinker' upon their arrival on the route, but time has caught up with the 'InterCity 125s'.

   2019 December 18, Richard Clinnick, “Traction transition: HST to Azuma”, in Rail, page 32

2. slangA psychiatrist; a head-shrinker.
3. medicineA sock-like article used to compress a stump remaining after amputation.
4. One who shrinks or recoils.

   Mr. Druggist, are you a shrinker? Hold a minute now — before getting excited. A late dictionary defines a shrinker in a general sense as one who recoils, or draws back fearfully from something dreaded.

   1923, The Pharmaceutical era

   1 more example

   His peculiar character of shrinker from everything and every one, always retreating into his shell of contemptuous opposition as a snail into his shell, led, perhaps, to his rejection of ordinary phraseology, the simple mode of expression used by the million.

   1881, Aston Leigh, chapter 4, in The Story of Philosophy, London: Trübner & Co., page 27

5. Something that itself shrinks.

   Are you a wishful shrinker? If you haven't dieted because you just plain like good food […]

   1959 April 26, “Dieter or Wishful Shrinker?”, in Los Angeles Times

   2 more examples

   Sometimes I think that humanity is divided into two classes, the Shrinkers and the non-Shrinkers. If you are a Shrinker, you are able to diminish yourself at will, and to slip into the kingdom of Lilliput, not in the role of Gulliver,

   1956, Beverley Nichols, Sunlight on the Lawn, page 73

   These can be called the Blaster (aggressive), the Shrinker (overly passive), or the Me (effective).

   1996, Maurice J. Elias with Steven E. Tobias, Social problem solving: interventions in the schools, page 49