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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flinching

Flinch \Flinch\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flinched; p. pr. & vb. n. Flinching.] [Prob. fr. OE. flecchen to waver, give way, F. fl['e]chir, fr. L. flectere to bend; but prob. influenced by E. blench. Cf. Flex.]

  1. 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; as, one of the parties flinched from the combat.

    A child, by a constant course of kindness, may be accustomed to bear very rough usage without flinching or complaining.
    --Locke.

  2. (Croquet) To let the foot slip from a ball, when attempting to give a tight croquet.

Wiktionary
flinching

n. A flinching motion; a flinch. vb. (present participle of flinch English)

Usage examples of "flinching".

The old man had made the climb bravely and in silence, flinching only when his aged joints troubled him, or when, heedlessly, his guards pushed the pace.

Minchin had dropped back, eyes wide, hands raised, body flinching into some sort of martial arts stance.

The figure in front of him also threw an arm forward, flinching backward, and vanished.

He doubled over, flinching wholly back into the room, into the unlit dark.

Ben became still at last, staring around him with a sick, flinching face, letting the longaxe trail to the ground.

Justin coaxed her on deck and stood with her at the rail, his arms braced around her until she stopped flinching with each crash of the waves against the hull.

She cried out his name as her hips bucked higher, flinching from the pleasure rather than the pain.

Demons burst from torn portals on the plain, tore mayhem through the shrieking, flinching ranks.

A sword-bound forearm spun end over end to land near the flinching hound.

When the last of their animals was clear and stood flinching on the sand with the driving rain lashing at his flanks, Garion turned back to the sluggishly heaving wreck.

Smugly I marvelled at his transparency, his flickering, flinching transparency.