🇵🇹Portuguese Source WordCode: PT

enrugar

Pronunciation / Transliteration: en-ru-gar

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Shrivel/ˈʃrɪv.əl/
verbCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #14500 frequency
Full Thesaurus
🇵🇹 Example Sentence in Portuguese:

"A fruta começou a enrugar no calor."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb
  1. 1

    To wrinkle and become smaller as a result of a loss of moisture or heat.

    "The leaves on the plant began to shrivel under the intense summer sun."
  2. 2

    To cause something to wither, contract, or become reduced in significance or effectiveness.

    "The unexpected financial crisis caused their hopes for expansion to shrivel."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from Middle English 'schrivelen', of uncertain origin, likely related to Old Norse or Scandinavian dialectal roots meaning to wrinkle or contract. Over centuries, the term has maintained its core physical sense of drying up and wrinkling, while also expanding metaphorically to describe the diminishing or weakening of abstract concepts.

Quick Vocabulary Retention Check

Which of the following is the closest synonym for "Shrivel"?

Thesaurus & Synonyms Graph

Explore Nuanced Synonyms for "Shrivel"

Discover exact matches, context-specific alternatives, and antonyms with intensity ratings in the VocabDictionary Thesaurus.

View "Shrivel" Synonym Map