Word.ws English Dictionary

crinch

UK/kɹɪnt͡ʃ/

crinch verb: to grind the teeth, crunch. Also the alternative form of cringe.

Verb

crinch (third-person singular simple present crinches, present participle crinching, simple past and past participle crinched)

  1. To grind the teeth, crunch

Noun

crinch (plural crinches)

  1. A small bit, morsel

Also used as

crinch is also the alternative form of cringe.

Forms of crinch

Verb
third-person singular presentcrinches
present participlecrinching
past participlecrinched
pastcrinched
alternative Scotlandcrinsh
Noun
pluralcrinches

Origin of crinch

Alteration of crunch.

From Middle English crenchen, a variant of crengen (“to bend haughtily, condescend”). More at cringe.

Questions about crinch

What does crinch mean?
Crinch means to grind the teeth, crunch.
What part of speech is crinch?
Crinch can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce crinch?
Crinch is pronounced /kɹɪnt͡ʃ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of crinch?
The past tense of crinch is crinched.

Words near crinch in the dictionary

  1. crinal
  2. crinamidine
  3. Crinan
  4. crinate
  5. crinated
  6. crinch
  7. crinched
  8. crinches
  9. crinching
  10. crincum-crancum
  11. crincum-crancums

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crinch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “crinch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crinch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.