Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To start or wince involuntarily, as from surprise or pain.
- v. To recoil, as from something unpleasant or difficult; shrink.
- n. An act or instance of starting, wincing, or recoiling.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To give way to fear or to a sense of pain; shrink back from anything painful or dangerous; manifest a feeling or a fear of suffering or injury of any kind; draw back from any act or undertaking through dread of consequences; shrink; wince: as, the pain was severe, but he did not flinch.
- In croquet, to allow the foot to slip from the ball in the act of croqueting.
- Same as flense.
Wiktionary
- n. A reflexive jerking away.
- v. To make a sudden, involuntary movement in response to a (usually negative) stimulus.
- v. To dodge (a question), to avoid an unpleasant task or duty
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To withdraw from any suffering or undertaking, from pain or danger; to fail in doing or perserving; to show signs of yielding or of suffering; to shrink; to wince.
- v. (Croquet) To let the foot slip from a ball, when attempting to give a tight croquet.
- n. The act of flinching.
WordNet 3.0
- v. draw back, as with fear or pain
- n. a reflex response to sudden pain
Etymologies
- Compare Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌷𐌰𐌽 (filhan), Icelandic fela ("to hide") (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete French flenchir, of Germanic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Come now, youre an intelligent woman, and you dont flinch from the truth.”
“This was no time to flinch from the British weather; the fate of the Province rested on my reaching the next mile castle.”
“Butt flinch" is when you're working on a construction site and someone entirely too fat and in need of suspenders gives you a vision that makes you want to have your memory erased.”
“As for accuracy, I find if installed correctly they will shoot just as well if not better because of the reduction in flinch factor.”
“I think that for a lot of people on the transition, the instinctive response to this is going to be to cause people to flinch from the idea of a serious effort at peacemaking.”
“However, I forgive him for having the courage to go after some rather unsavory plot developments, no holds barred, and not flinch from the nastier things his protagonists do.”
“I've since switched to a 20 gauge and suprise, my flinch is gone and the deer still die when you shoot them.”
“Boddington says the only way to cure a flinch is shooting a 22lr a LOT.”
“Most likely you're flinching, and if you don't think you can flinch from a benchrest, think again.”
“They did not surrender an inch nor did flinch from the next potential threat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flinch’.
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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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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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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Gesundheit
Words that sound like sneezes
zucchini, zoology, wysiwyg, woodchuck, withhold, wichita, vacuum, twelfth, syzygy, synchronous, swatch, supersede and 120 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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parlerodermime's Words
loquacious, orange, lackadaisical, rhythm, esoterrorist, contrary, enchanted, extraordinary, nymph, chatter, incessant, time and 168 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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Winter's Bone vocabulary
Study list of difficult words from Daniel Woodrell's novel Winter's Bone. In reverse order: start at the bottom to see words from the beginning of the novel!
plaid, lazy susan, lope, furtive, dour, scamper, hard-boiled, implacable, dainty, stomp, resignation, crank and 138 more...
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...:::bella:::...
originally started as an attempt to collect words I found visually and auditorially beautiful, as well as psychically evocative, this has become nothing more than a grab bag of word curiosities, a ...
bergamot, jambalaya, bee's knees, heliotrope, hosanna, gamboge, aureole, filial, madrigal, multilingual, sacrosanct, sojourn and 1072 more...
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What Do You Mean @
What Abt these ... :)
somber, self effacing, conundrum, outlandish, mesmerize, endemic, shelve, fledgling, acolyte, absurd, rampant, narcissist and 163 more...
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Words next
patrimony, cacophony, fearsome, coruscating, coruscating, coruscating, dolomite, dolorous, transdermal, chatty cathy, chatterbox, incessantly and 249 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for flinch.
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