Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To shrink back, as in fear; cower.
- v. To behave in a servile way; fawn.
- n. An act or instance of cringing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To bend; crouch; especially, to bend or crouch with servility or from fear or cowardice; fawn; cower.
- Synonyms To stoop, truckle.
- To contract; distort.
- n. A servile or fawning obeisance.
Wiktionary
- n. A posture or gesture of shrinking or recoiling.
- n. dialect A crick.
- v. dated To bow or crouch in servility.
- v. To shrink, tense or recoil, as in fear, disgust or embarrassment.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To draw one's self together as in fear or servility; to bend or crouch with base humility; to wince; hence, to make court in a degrading manner; to fawn.
- v. obsolete To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.
- n. Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility.
WordNet 3.0
- v. show submission or fear
- v. draw back, as with fear or pain
Etymologies
- Via Middle English, from Old English cringan. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English crengen, to bend haughtily, probably ultimately from Old English cringan, to give way. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“What makes me cringe is the wanton mis-use of “have”, plus the non-use of it when required: “I seen my friends at Walmarts yestidday” is a common phrase here.”
“One thing that makes me cringe is seeing politicians from the mainstream parties acting as apologists for BNP voters.”
“The cringe is a successful technique for deflecting aggression … Just as we are genetically programmed to seek signs of love and loyalty, dogs are genetically programmed to exploit this foible of ours.”
“On its website, however, the cultural cringe is evident and double standards obtain.”
“He said he would never again cringe before his father.”
“The cringe is a successful technique for deflecting aggression.”
“Hence the term "cringe" - you cringe at the use of the tech but you still watch.”
“There are moments where I feel like I’m one of those movie moments that were someone else to view me, they’d cringe from the sappiness.”
“It’s easy to laugh at the stupid marketing and vapid articles about yummy mummies, but what makes me cringe is realizing that “educated” people are writing that copy and thinking that we plebes are going eat it up.”
“I can't hear a word and cringe inwardly before awkwardly requesting a replay.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cringe’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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SMILE and other emotive verbs
Single verbs that describe expression or emotional reaction. "He __ed" (smiled/gulped/scoffed...)
smile, beam, sneer, scoff, giggle, laugh, snigger, scowl, grin, leer, wince, grimace and 97 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
taramea, tawings, tchicks, timider, tirades, tirings, towings, trailed, trailer, trained, trainee, trainer and 2373 more...
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MANY A WORD!
This is just a list, right, that I'm gonna, like, fill with words, that, like, are every word that I can, like, think of with, ahhmm, my brain.
and, able, art, ass, algebra, amp, ankle, booze, bong, aura, bling, bright and 134 more...
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Your Mother
Joyess
cramp, crumble, cringe, slope, fling, prone, freckle, plank, frock, tramp, slump, crotch rot and 36 more...
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Words-I-tend-to-forget
I have read them many times before and looked them up as well, and yet I forget their meaning. So, this list should collect them for me for revision.
glib, audacious, imminent, deflect, convention, calytrix, overbearing, regressive, condescending, crouch, impasse, agonistic and 11 more...
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October Words-11849
During the month of October, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has a...
desalination, Girn, incongruous, irreparably, pneumatic, metastatic, languorous, menagerie, mottled, valise, moot, deferential and 28 more...
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Words Stephenie Meyer Overuses
A collection of words author Stephenie Meyer overuses and abuses in her 'Twilight' series of young adult vampire fiction. Every time you read one of these words in her books, you will GRIMACE and C...
chagrin, grimace, chuckle, smirk, whispered, lope, scintillating, marble, topaz, smoldering, smolder, perfect and 30 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cringe.
agustinolvera Eclispe by Stephenie Meyer Page 81
-"I felt Edward cringe." Nov 1, 2010
strev what happens when you are hit with a pundit Apr 3, 2009