Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To shrink back, as in fear; cower.
- intransitive verb To behave in a servile way; fawn.
- noun An act or instance of cringing.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A servile or fawning obeisance.
- To bend; crouch; especially, to bend or crouch with servility or from fear or cowardice; fawn; cower.
- Synonyms To stoop, truckle.
- To contract; distort.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.
- transitive verb 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.
- noun Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
posture orgesture ofshrinking orrecoiling . - noun dialect A
crick . - verb dated To
bow orcrouch inservility . - verb To
shrink ,tense orrecoil , as infear ,disgust orembarrassment .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb show submission or fear
- verb draw back, as with fear or pain
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One thing that makes me cringe is seeing politicians from the mainstream parties acting as apologists for BNP voters.
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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.
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One thing that makes me cringe is seeing politicians from the mainstream parties acting as apologists for BNP voters.
Archive 2009-06-01 2009
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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.
The Animal Kingdom 2007
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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.
The Animal Kingdom 2007
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He said he would never again cringe before his father.
Poetry Friday 2006
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On its website, however, the cultural cringe is evident and double standards obtain.
Double Standards Laban 2006
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He said he would never again cringe before his father.
Archive 2006-07-01 2006
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The cringe is a successful technique for deflecting aggression.
The Truth About Dogs 1999
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The cringe is a successful technique for deflecting aggression.
The Truth About Dogs 1999
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The more recent “cringe” is a secondhand embarrassment or shame that can also be consumed proactively as content, like a horror movie.
TikTok and the Vibes Revival Condé Nast 2021
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“Cringe” is a shortened form of “cringey,” which itself is a shortened form of “cringeworthy,” referring to the embarrassment (often the secondhand kind) of witnessing something that is awkward, uncomfortable, passé, or cliché.
How millennials became cringe Rebecca Jennings 2022
strev commented on the word cringe
what happens when you are hit with a pundit
April 4, 2009
agustinolvera commented on the word cringe
Eclispe by Stephenie Meyer Page 81
-"I felt Edward cringe."
November 1, 2010
scarequotes commented on the word cringe
The relatively new noun sense, in particular:
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21575707/tiktok-cringe
November 20, 2020