cringe
/ˈkɹɪnd͡ʒ/
cringe verb: to cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
Verb
cringe (third-person singular simple present cringes, present participle cringing, simple past and past participle cringed)
- To cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
- He cringed as the bird collided with the window.
- [W]hen 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, ſo they ſtept back and went behind.1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That which is to Come: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally...
- To experience an inward feeling of disgust, embarrassment, or fear; (by extension) to feel very embarrassed.
- I'm cringing watching this easily Blizzard- or Square Enix-worthy new trailer for Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls Online. Not because it's bad — it's a deftly rendered slice of CGI. But it must have cost a fortune. It makes me want to say "Spend the money on knocking the game out of the park, please...2014 January 29, Matt Peckham, “8 Minutes of Ridiculously Beautiful The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Footage”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Aug...
- To bow or crouch in servility.
- [I]f they keepe their wits, yet they are accompted fooles by reaſon of their carriage, becauſe they cannot ride a horſe, which euery Clowne can doe; ſalute and court a Gentlewoman, carue at table, cringe and make congies, which euery common ſwaſher can doe, [...]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Loue of Learning; or Ouer-much Study. With a Digression of the Misery of Schollers, and Why the Muses are Melancholy.”, in The Anatomy of...
- And thou ſly hypocrite, who now wouldſt ſeem / Patron of liberty, who more then thou / Once fawn'd,and cring'd, and ſervilly ador'd / Heav'ns awful Monarch?1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- To act in an obsequious or servile manner.
- Here the beggar accoſts me; had I appeared as himſelf, he had aſked nothing: but now he uncovers, he cringeth, he cries for relief.1782, John Brown, “The Christian Journal of a Summer-day”, in The Christian Journal; or, Common Incidents, Spiritual Instructors. […], 4th edition, Edinburgh: […] Gavin Alston; [s]old by William...
- Their [the clergy's] chief business, during a quarter of a century, had been to teach the people to cringe and the prince to domineer.1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 105
- To draw (a body part) close to the body; also, to distort or wrinkle (the face, etc.).
- [H]ow thriue you, howe periſh you, and they cringing in their neckes, like rattes, ſmothered in the holde, [...]1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 10
- Whip him Fellowes, / Till like a Boy you ſee him crindge his face, / And whine aloud for mercy.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- To bow or crouch to (someone) in servility; to escort (someone) in a cringing manner.
Noun
cringe (countable and uncountable, plural cringes)
- A gesture or posture of cringing (recoiling or shrinking).
- He glanced with a cringe at the mess on his desk.
- An act or disposition of servile obeisance.
- A crick (“painful muscular cramp or spasm of some part of the body”).
- Things, particularly online content, which would cause an onlooker to cringe from secondhand embarrassment.
- Bro... you just posted cringe
- There was so much cringe in that episode!
Adjective
cringe (comparative more cringe, superlative most cringe)
- Synonym of cringeworthy or uncool, inducing awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment.
- Brands trying to appeal to young people with memes is the most cringe thing ever.
- Last week, while giving a commencement speech to New York University graduates, pop star Taylor Swift offered a timely bit of advice: “No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime.”2022 May 24, Kate Knibbs, quoting Taylor Swift, “A Novelist and an AI Cowrote Your Next Cringe-Read”, in Wired, →ISSN, archived from the original on 19 May 2023
- Synonyms:
- cringeworthy or uncool, inducing awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment
Interjection
- Stated in response to something cringeworthy.
cringe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
cringe in Hindi
- क्रिंज, क्रिंज करें
cringe in Tamil
- secondhand embarrassment
- கிரிஞ்சு kiriñcu
cringe in Urdu
- دبنا, جھکنا, مجبوراً کرنا
cringe in Bengali
- ভয়ে, লজ্জায় কুঁকড়ে যাওয়া
More languagesFewer languages
- cringe in Malayalam
- അടിപണിയുക, താണു വീണ് അപേക്ഷിക്കുക, അമിതവിനയം കാട്ടുക, കെഞ്ചുക
- cringe in Kannada
- ಅಂಜಿನಡುಗು, ತಗ್ಗುಬಗ್ಗು, ಗಿಂಜು, ಗೀಜು
- cringe in Malay
- ringis
Examples of cringe in a sentence
- He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “A Bosom Friend”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers...
- Nor did he wince or cringe to the blows.1917 April, Jack London, chapter VIII, in Jerry of the Islands, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 115:
- Lady, receive a tributary lay / From one who cringeth not to titled state / Conventional, and lacking will to prate / Of comeliness— [...]1846, Thomas Cooper, “To the Countess of Blessington”, in The Baron’s Yule Feast: A Christmas-rhyme, London: Jeremiah How, […], →OCLC:
- Humbly thou cringest that with nod of head / Couldst fling me seaward from they steepest cliffs!1891, Edgar Fawcett, “How a Queen Loved”, in Songs of Doubt and Dream: (Poems), New York, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Funk & Wagnalls, →OCLC...
Synonyms of cringe
- cringeworthy or uncool
- inducing awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment
Forms of cringe
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | cringes |
| present participle | cringing |
| past participle | cringed |
| past | cringed |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | cringest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | cringedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | cringeth |
| alternative form (dialectal) | crinch |
| Noun | |
| plural | cringes |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more cringe |
| superlative | most cringe |
Origin of cringe
The verb is derived from Middle English crengen (“to bend in a haughty manner; to condescend”) [and other forms], from Old English *crenġan, *crenċġan, *crenċan (“to cause to fall or turn”) from Proto-Germanic *krangijaną (“to cause to fall; to cause to turn”), causative of Proto-Germanic *kringaną, *krinkaną (“to fall; to turn; to yield”) (> Old English crin(c)gan (“to yield; to cringe; to fall; to die, perish”)), from Proto-Indo-European *grenǵʰ- (“to turn”)). The causative suffix is from *-janą (suffix forming causatives with the sense ‘to cause to do (the action of the verb)’ from strong verbs). The English word is cognate with Danish krænge (“to turn inside out, evert”), Dutch krengen (“to careen, veer”) and Dutch kring (“circle”), Scots crenge, creenge, creinge, crienge (“to cringe; to shrug”), Swedish kränga (“to careen; to heel, lurch; to toss”), and West Frisian kringe (“to pinch; to poke; to push; to insist, urge”); and is a doublet of crinkle. The noun and adjective are derived from the verb via zero derivation.
Words formed from cringe
- cringe comedy
- cringe culture
- cringefest
- cringeful
- cringeling
- cringelord
- cringemaking
- cringe-making
- cringe-makingly
- cringeometer
- cringe-o-meter
- cringer
- cringesome
- cringetastic
- cringeworthy
- cringing
- cringingly
- cringingness
- cringy
- cultural cringe
- do not kill the part of you that is cringe, kill the part of you that cringes
- cringe de la cringe
- millennial cringe
Phrases with cringe
Words that rhyme with cringe
Questions about cringe
- What does cringe mean?
- Cringe means to cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
- What is cringe in Hindi?
- Cringe in Hindi is क्रिंज, क्रिंज करें. See Cringe meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cringe in a sentence?
- He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor.
- What part of speech is cringe?
- Cringe can be a verb, a noun, an adjective or an interjection.
- How do you pronounce cringe?
- Cringe is pronounced /ˈkɹɪnd͡ʒ/.
- What is the past tense of cringe?
- The past tense of cringe is cringed.
Words near cringe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cringe (page history and authors); cringe (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cringe (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cringe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cringe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cringe (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-cringe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cringe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cringe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.