The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country. The word shrink as used in this sentence from the passage means A) a psychiatrist. B) to back off from. C) to become smaller. D) to disappear from view

In the context of the passage, the expression shrink means that the soldiers withdraw from the confrontation and the circumstances related to the crisis in the middle of the American Revolution. These soldiers were called sunshine patriots because they only supported the loyal patriots when they were winning. This was George Washington’s huge problem trying to maintain soldiers active during the Revolution.