CRINGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cringe mean? 

• CRINGE (verb)
  The verb CRINGE has 2 senses:

1. draw back, as with fear or pain

2. show submission or fear

  Familiarity information: CRINGE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRINGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cringe    ... he / she / it cringes   
Past simple: cringed   
Past participle: cringed   
-ing form: cringing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Draw back, as with fear or pain

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

cringe; flinch; funk; quail; recoil; shrink; squinch; wince

Context example:

she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf

Hypernyms (to "cringe" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cringe"):

retract; shrink back (pull away from a source of disgust or fear)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Show submission or fear

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

cower; crawl; creep; cringe; fawn; grovel

Hypernyms (to "cringe" is one way to...):

bend; flex (form a curve)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

It is not my nature, sir, to cringe to any man, or to seek to prove a fact if my word has been doubted.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Cringing and snivelling himself before the blows or angry speech of a man, he revenged himself, in turn, upon creatures weaker than he.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“It is very well to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An instant afterwards there appeared a little wizened fellow with a cringing manner and a shambling style of walking.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When he saw me, he came over and apologised for his bad conduct, and asked me in a very humble, cringing way to be led back to his own room and to have his note-book again.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He cringed involuntarily under the expected blow.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The Indian looked up at him, and then, with a little yelp, cringed to the ground and clung to Lord John's leg.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His bullying, overbearing manner was all gone too, and he cringed along at my companion’s side like a dog with its master.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was still in the strait-waistcoat and in the padded room, but the suffused look had gone from his face, and his eyes had something of their old pleading—I might almost say, "cringing"—softness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Turning round we saw a little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)