Word.ws English Dictionary

cringeful

cringeful adjective: tending to make one cringe; embarrassing or frightening.

Adjective

cringeful (comparative more cringeful, superlative most cringeful)

  1. Tending to make one cringe; embarrassing or frightening.
    • As the audience is propelled towards a state of cringeful suspense, the script is littered with recriminations and wit.1993 -, Theatre Record - Volume 13, Issues 1-9, page 222
    • Viciously massaging conditioner through her dripping hair, Paula lets the footage play to the cringeful end.2011, Cath Kenneally, Jetty Road, →ISBN, page 44
  2. Tending to cringe.
    • He is correctly ferocious, but like all bullies cringeful before the malevolent Katisha.1960, The New York Times Theater Reviews - Volume 7, page 407
    • One email was from her brother, however, and this made Bridget both happy and cringeful since she owed him several hundred dollars for some car repairs he'd taken care of for her.2010, Mary Kitt-Neel, Asunderland, →ISBN

Forms of cringeful

comparativemore cringeful
superlativemost cringeful

Origin of cringeful

From cringe + -ful.

Questions about cringeful

What does cringeful mean?
Cringeful means tending to make one cringe; embarrassing or frightening.
What part of speech is cringeful?
Cringeful is an adjective.

Words near cringeful in the dictionary

  1. cringefail
  2. cringefest
  3. cringefests
  4. cringefluencer
  5. cringefluencers
  6. cringeful
  7. cringeling
  8. cringelings
  9. cringelord
  10. cringelords
  11. cringemaking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cringeful (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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