shriveled

/ˈʃrɪvəld/

Something that's shriveled is wrinkled, withered, and dried out. If you forget to water your plants, they will become shriveled.

Our skin becomes more shriveled as we grow older, and if you leave a bowl of apples on your table for weeks, the fruit will eventually become shriveled as well. To shrivel is to contract, or grow smaller, and wrinkle. The origin of both words is uncertain, but it's suspected that they have a Scandinavian root, since skryvla means "to wrinkle" in Swedish. Other guesses connect shriveled with shrimp or shrink.

Definitions of shriveled

1. adjective

   (used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture
   “shriveled leaves on the unwatered seedlings”

   synonyms: dried-up, sear, sere, shrivelled, withered

   dry

   free from liquid or moisture; lacking natural or normal moisture or depleted of water; or no longer wet
2. adjective

   lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
   “the old woman's shriveled skin”

   “he looked shriveled and ill”

   synonyms: shrivelled, shrunken, withered, wizen, wizened

   lean, thin

   lacking excess flesh
3. adjective

   reduced in efficacy or vitality or intensity
   “our shriveled receipts during the storm”

   “as the project wore on she found her enthusiasm shriveled”

   synonyms: shrivelled, shrunken

   decreased, reduced

   made less in size or amount or degree