wince1
/wɪns
/verb [no object]
Make a slight involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the body out of pain or distress: he winced at the disgust in her voice...
- Seria dropped to all fours and winced as pain cut through her palms like a sharp knife.
- She tried to stand, but she winced in pain and clutched her side before slumping back onto the chair.
- She winced in pain from the stitches in her shoulder when she reached down to the floor.
Synonyms
grimace, pull a face;
flinch, blench, start, draw back, shrink away, recoil, cringe, squirm
noun
An instance of wincing.At the touch of his hand, there was a slight wince of pain....
- Brad laughed a bit, his laughter ending in a slight wince as the pain flared up again.
- There was a brief moment where he could not hide his wince, his small grimace of pain.
Synonyms
grimace;
flinch, start
Derivatives
wincer
- There is a sprinkling of hobblers, plenty of wincers, and almost universal hollow eyes and messed hair.
- Now I have a dream that the primary school children of today might grow up in a nation that does not know wincers and eye rollers.
- Although Maurice is mentioned prominently on a website called Speed Trap Exchange, the wincers would say that, strictly speaking, Maurice does not operate a speed trap.
wincingly
- A Scots comedian's wincingly accurate portrayal of life inside the corridors of power depicting a downtrodden minister and a bullying spin doctor has already received widespread acclaim.
- Mind you, I wouldn't mind not hearing some of the local ads, which can be wincingly bad.
- While wincingly memorable and undoubtedly made by an historic personage, it has no historical significance in the sense we understand.
Origin
Middle English (originally in the sense 'kick restlessly from pain or impatience'): from an Anglo-Norman French variant of Old French guenchir 'turn aside'.
Rhymes
wince2
/wɪns/noun British
A roller for moving textile fabric through a dyeing vat.The Hengst was fitted on one side with a wooden winch, the ‘wince’, and could be fastened to the side of the vat or copper by means of a rod into which it was driven....
- Sometimes the ebullition is kept up for a quarter of an hour; the pieces all the while being turned over a wince, from one side of the copper vessel to the other.
Origin
Late 17th century (in the sense 'winch'): variant of winch.