headshrinker

[ hed-shring-ker ]

noun

, Slang.

1. shrink ( def 9 ).

headshrinker

/ ˈhɛdˌʃrɪŋkə /

noun

1. slang.
   a psychoanalyst Often shortened toshrink
2. a head-hunter who shrinks the heads of his victims

Word History and Origins

Origin of headshrinker¹

An Americanism dating back to 1945–50; head + shrink + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Eschewing Stefan’s bid for sanity, skip his date with the headshrinker and follow Colin to his apartment, where he’ll offer you the opportunity to drop acid with him.

From Slate

“You think you’re the perfect headshrinker with all those psychology books you read, and you really don’t know a thing.”

From Literature

Baring his troubles to an absorbed audience, Paar for three days turned 25 million people into one agglomerate headshrinker.

From Time Magazine Archive

Cabaret Comic Jack Carter will appear as an expatriate screenwriter in London in Come Live with Me; TV Host Durward Kirby will be a fumbling philanderer in Me and Thee; and Alan King is applying his gift for Levittown levity to the role of a shrinking headshrinker in The Impossible Years.

From Time Magazine Archive

During his early years in Hollywood, anyone who had predicted that he would end up as the rootin'-tootin' idol of U.S. children would have been led instantly off to a headshrinker.*

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• psychotherapist
• therapist