cringed

Verb

cringe (third-person singular simple present cringes, present participle cringing, simple past and past participle cringed)

1. (intransitive) To cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
   • He cringed as the bird collided with the window.
2. (figuratively, intransitive) 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...
3. (intransitive) 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...
4. (figuratively, intransitive) 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...
5. (obsolete, transitive) 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
6. (obsolete, transitive) To bow or crouch to (someone) in servility; to escort (someone) in a cringing manner.

See all 12 meanings of cringe