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Cringe   /krɪndʒ/   Listen
verb
Cringe  v. t.  (past & past part. cringed; pres. part. cringing)  To draw one's self together as in fear or servility; to bend or crouch with base humility; to wince; hence, to make court in a degrading manner; to fawn. "When 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." "Sly hypocrite,... who more than thou Once fawned and cringed, and servilely adored Heaven's awful monarch?" "Flatterers... are always bowing and cringing."



Cringe  v. t.  To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort. (Obs.) "Till like a boy you see him cringe his face, And whine aloud for mercy."



noun
Cringe  n.  Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility. "With cringe and shrug, and bow obsequious."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Cringe" Quotes from Famous Books



... time so fit to do this in as now, when he has the bridle of Mansoul in his hand?' And this I took special notice of, that the inhabitants, notwithstanding all this, could not—no, they could not, when they see him march through the town, but cringe, bow, bend, and were ready to lick the dust of his feet. They also wished a thousand times over that he would become their Prince and Captain, and would become their protection. They would also one to another talk of the comeliness of his person, ...
— The Holy War • John Bunyan

... of being which his father had hardly crushed in his own heart? For what, forsooth, shall a Negro want with pride amid the studied humiliations of fifty million fellows? Well sped, my boy, before the world had dubbed your ambition insolence, had held your ideals unattainable, and taught you to cringe and bow. Better far this nameless void that stops my life than a sea of sorrow ...
— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois

... my masters" a voice seemed to cry from the very heart of that multitude. "No longer will we halt at your command, no longer will your words be wisdom to us, no longer shall we smile with pleasure at your stories, and cringe with fear at your displeasure; you may hate our defection, you may lament our disloyalty, you may bribe us and smile upon us, you may preach to us and bewail our sins. We are no longer yours—WE ARE OUR ...
— The Secret City • Hugh Walpole

... possible persons, beginning with the Metropolitan and ending with riding-masters and midwives! Then began the visits to acquaintances and strangers! And here is one point which must be noted: in making his calls he did not cringe and did not importune; but, on the contrary, he behaved himself in decorous fashion, and even wore a cheery and pleasant aspect, although an ingrained odour of liquor accompanied him everywhere—and his Oriental costume was ...
— A Reckless Character - And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... half a dozen sets of false teeth, arranged in a horrid circle around a cigar-box full of extracted molars such as made one cringe, grinned bitingly out of a glass case before the dentist's office door. The effect was of a ...
— Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man • Marie Conway Oemler


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