cringe
verb /krɪndʒ/
/krɪndʒ/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they cringe | /krɪndʒ/ /krɪndʒ/ |
| he / she / it cringes | /ˈkrɪndʒɪz/ /ˈkrɪndʒɪz/ |
| past simple cringed | /krɪndʒd/ /krɪndʒd/ |
| past participle cringed | /krɪndʒd/ /krɪndʒd/ |
| -ing form cringing | /ˈkrɪndʒɪŋ/ /ˈkrɪndʒɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] to move back and/or away from somebody because you are afraid synonym cower
- a child cringing in terror
- [intransitive] to feel very embarrassed and uncomfortable about something
- I cringe when I think of the poems I wrote then.
- She felt herself cringe with embarrassment at the memory.
- The very idea made him cringe inside.
Word OriginMiddle English crenge, crenche, related to Old English cringan, crincan ‘bend, yield, fall in battle’, of Germanic origin and related to Dutch krengen ‘heel over’ and German krank ‘sick’, also to the verb crank.