shrink back

1. 1.

   pull away from a source of disgust or fear

   Synonymsretract

   Broaderflinch

Questions about shrink back

What does shrink back mean?

shrink back means "pull away from a source of disgust or fear".

What is another word for shrink back?

Close synonyms include retract. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is shrink back a common word?

shrink back is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.