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.
- To bend; crouch; especially, to bend or crouch with servility or from fear or cowardice; fawn; cower.
- Synonyms To stoop, truckle.
- To contract; distort.
- noun A servile or fawning obeisance.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- 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.
- transitive verb obsolete To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.
- 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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“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
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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
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