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No, not the Urban Dictionary top entries :-)

From the Lyrics of "Roller Disco Dreams" by Maximo Park:

"If it's a grower - Then why can't we take things slower?"

For me, "grower" here always parsed to "something you don't care that much first, but with the time, you grow fond of it". (For example, the song "Roller Disco Dreams" for me. Isn't it ironic.) Correct me if I understood it wrong.

Consequently, especially for songs, there should be the polar opposite: Something you immediately find oh so great that you rev up your mixtape, but after hearing it three or four times you can't stand it anymore. (Examples known but withheld.) You're fed up with it, sick and tired, disenchanted and still not out of synonyms, but is there a single colloquial noun, a "shrinker" so to say?

Usage by comment request: "I immediately taped 'Entre dos Tierras' (sorry, Heroes Del Silencio) when it played the second time in the radio, but after the fifth hearing of my mixtape I already can't stand it anymore. Seems it was just a [placeholder]." "Fad/craze" is quite good but still to "weak". (I think you are just bored by a fad that is over, not actively disgusted.)

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  • Sure, you can coin it if you want...
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Sep 10, 2022 at 13:31
  • None that I know of.
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Sep 10, 2022 at 14:25
  • Opposite of grower: reaper. But that's pretty grim.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Sep 19, 2022 at 22:59
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    A fad, or a craze. Can you edit your question and add a sentence where you'd use the word.
    – tgdavies
    Commented Aug 26, 2023 at 1:06
  • There are lots of synonyms for fad, flash in the pan, flavor of the month, etc, but they don't specifically indicate disgust. But equally a grower doesn't disgust you at first, it just doesn't have much effect, so what you want isn't an opposite of grower, it's a word with a different, overly-specific meaning. Which is why you have a lot of answers telling you there's no such word.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jan 24 at 12:02

3 Answers 3

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It's not a single word, but you can say a song "gets old quickly", to mean that it rapidly becomes boring.

See What does "it gets old pretty fast" mean in these sentences?, and this youtube video

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To my knowledge, the word has not yet been coined. You could use it, and given the right context, your readers might understand what you mean. Some might even think it clever that you've subverted another word. English slang is pretty flexible like that.

However, it doesn't stand up to a lot of scrutiny. 'Grower' is still quite a recently-coined word, but it comes from the idiomatic expression that some things grow on you. While 'shrink' might be the most obvious antonym of 'grow', there is no immediately opposite expression to 'grow on you'. Things don't 'shrink on you'. All the best with it if you choose to use it, but I don't think it's going to catch on.

Also, I don't think you've properly understood the lyrics to the song you quote by Maximo Park. While it is true that songs and the like are described as 'growers' if they gradually grow on you, the term is also used to refer to penises that are small when flacid but are markedly larger when erect. Given the lyrics of the song (We shared a bed but never touched / Next time we compensated in a rush) I think the use of the word 'grower' in the line you quote is meant as a double entendre.

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  • 'the term is also used to refer to penises that are small when flacid but are markedly larger when erect.' - I am indebted to you for this useful addition to my vocabulary. I think you need another 'c' in 'flaccid'?
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 26, 2022 at 10:17
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Several thoughts.

I haven't heard the word "grower" used with this meaning. Slang and newly-invented words are often very localized. It could be that everybody in "your group" knows and uses this word, but don't assume that means that people who are not members of your group know it or will understand it. I'm occasionally amused to note that a word or acronym means totally different things to different groups that I associate with. For example, "CRT" means "combat results table" to wargamers, "critical race theory" to political activists, and "cathode ray tube" to electronics engineers.

There is no clear "opposite" of "grower" (by your definition). If something does not "grow on you", that could mean, as you say, that you like it at first but get bored with it. Or it could be that you like it at first and continue to like it for the rest of your life. Or it might not interest you at all and it never does. Etc.

All that said, I don't know any word for something that you like at first but get bored with. It's possible that in some group there is a word for this, but I don't know of any and I don't think any such word is widely recognized. You could try to invent a word, like your suggestion "shrinker". But inventing a new word and getting millions of people to use it is hard, so frankly, I don't think you'll succeed. But feel free to try.

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  • This sense of grower has made it to Collins dictionary at least "3. a piece of music that is initially unimpressive but becomes more enjoyable after further hearings". Accusing the OP of having made something up or using obscure localised slang is a bit rude if you don't do your research first.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 15:37
  • I didn't "accuse" him of anything. Certainly not of making things up. I suggested the possibility that this was a word with localized meaning. That wasn't an "accusation", just a suggestion of why he may find a word very familiar but that I, who happen to be a native speaker using the language for 64 years, have never heard of. If the OP took that as some kind of personal attack, I apologize if my wording led to that impression, that was not my intent.
    – Jay
    Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 23:17

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