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What is "cringe"

Crossword clues for cringe

cringe
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
cringe
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
when
▪ And the arms cringe when they touch human flesh.
▪ Nine times out of 10, a coach cringes when one of his players mouths off about an opponent.
■ VERB
make
▪ It makes me cringe into the smelly upholstery of his battered armchair.
▪ Sometimes, regrettably, though the idea may make us cringe, that voice may be that of a convicted murderer.
▪ It made me cringe at its over-the-top violence.
▪ Also, she peppered her lectures with unscientific statements that made doctors cringe.
▪ The memory of that morning flooded in, making her cringe inside.
▪ During it all, nothing has made me cringe more than the sound of an approaching bike.
▪ Which make you cringe slightly, or shift about in your seat?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ His blunt personality leaves even his supporters cringing.
▪ People cringed in terror as the shells hit the city around them.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Also, she peppered her lectures with unscientific statements that made doctors cringe.
▪ But they cringe at the idea that some one else may benefit at their expense.
▪ During it all, nothing has made me cringe more than the sound of an approaching bike.
▪ His watch said that it was nine-thirty, and he cringed to think of the time he had lost.
▪ My voice was calm, but inside I cringed away from her.
▪ The pair cringed in embarrassment as the president, speaking through an interpreter, paid them the world's most unlikely compliment.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cringe

Cringe \Cringe\, v. t. To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort. [Obs.]

Till like a boy you see him cringe his face, And whine aloud for mercy.
--Shak.

Cringe

Cringe \Cringe\, n. Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility. ``With cringe and shrug, and bow obsequious.''
--Cowper.

Cringe

Cringe \Cringe\ (kr[i^]nj), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cringed (kr[i^]njd); p. pr. & vb. n. Cringing.] [As. crincgan, cringan, crincan, to jield, fall; akin to E. crank.] 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.

When they were come up to the place where the lions were, the boys that went before were glad to cringe behind, for they were afraid of the lions.
--Bunyan.

Sly hypocrite, . . . who more than thou Once fawned and cringed, and servilely adored Heaven's awful monarch?
--Milton.

Flatterers . . . are always bowing and cringing.
--Arbuthnot.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
cringe

early 13c., from causative of Old English cringan "give way, fall (in battle), become bent," from Proto-Germanic *krank- "bend, curl up" (cognates: Old Norse kringr, Dutch kring, German Kring "circle, ring"). Related: Cringed; cringing. As a noun from 1590s.

Wiktionary
cringe

n. 1 A posture or gesture of shrinking or recoiling. 2 (context dialect English) A crick. vb. 1 (context dated intransitive English) To bow or crouch in servility. 2 (context intransitive English) To shrink, tense or recoil, as in fear, disgust or embarrassment. 3 (context transitive obsolete English) To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.

WordNet
cringe

  1. v. draw back, as with fear or pain; "she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf" [syn: flinch, squinch, funk, shrink, wince, recoil, quail]

  2. show submission or fear [syn: fawn, crawl, creep, cower, grovel]

Wikipedia
Cringe

Cringe is the response to embarrassment or social awkwardness.

Usage examples of "cringe".

Sea Wolf awoke at the touch, and cringed when he saw the monks standing over him.

But he would not go like a baseborn coward, cringing and pleading for mercy.

The big-fisted proprietor stepped into the room and Birdy Zelker cringed against the wall.

He did not send me here to fawn and cringe, And coax these boors into good humour.

Nucko-political bodies all the way up in Quebec, far north of the Enfield MA where Gately had been cringing his way to nightly AA meetings with his fingers in his mouth.

Irasmus waved his wand, and one of the gobbes scuttled forward, cringing, to bag and shoulder those tomes of stolen knowledge.

II Pale flakes with lingering stealth come feeling for our faces -- We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed, Deep into grassier ditches.

He remembered dear Richard: the fear-bulged eyes, the crying, the whimpering, the begging as he cringed before the rakoshi and answered in detail every question Kusum put to him about his aunts and daughter in the United States.

They cringed from a pair of Mags who urged them along with curses and strokes from the barrels of their Copperheads.

Mary cringed every time she read a popular article that tried to explain why mitochondrial DNA is only inherited from the maternal line.

They address the Moors with a villainous, cringing look which makes the sons of Ishmael savage, for they know it is only feigned.

He cringed from the man and stared at Negri in utter horror and confusion.

Meredith puckered up her lips, cringing at the deep lines that radiated out from them, then screamed out loud as another face crowded into the mirror beside hers.

The thugs listened to their short-wave radios and cringed at the news: Pontypool, Wales.

The terrified face of General Rolando Rodriguez cringed from his darting hands.