cringe

KRINJ/kɹɪnd͡ʒ/

Verbcringes, cringing, cringed

Noun pluralcringes (some meanings)

11 meanings of cringe

Practice

1
feel embarrassedverbfigurativelyintransitive
To feel an inward rush of disgust, embarrassment, or fear; especially, to feel deeply embarrassed.
Readers cringe at the clumsy dialogue in his early novels.
He cringed inwardly when his boss mispronounced the client's name.
UsageOften cringe at something, or with an -ing form: I cringe watching it.
Similarwince, squirm, shudder
Note
Here the flinch moves inside: nothing visible need happen, and inwardly can make that explicit. The sense readily takes a participle naming what sets it off, as when Matt Peckham wrote in 2014, "I'm cringing watching this" trailer. This inward wince is the feeling that the slang noun and the slang adjective are built on.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Matt Peckham published the cited trailer article in 2014. techland.time.com
Peckham wrote the quoted words about watching a trailer. en.wiktionary.org
The slang noun and adjective derive from the verb. en.wiktionary.org
2
embarrassing to watchadjectiveslang
So awkward, uncool, or embarrassing that it makes onlookers feel secondhand embarrassment.
The influencer's forced jokes came across as deeply cringe to most viewers.
Half the comments called the marketing campaign cringe.
UsageOften after be: that's so cringe. It compares: the most cringe thing.
Similarembarrassing, awkward, cheesy, corny
Oppositecool
Note
It sits comfortably after a verb, as when Taylor Swift told NYU graduates that however hard they tried "to avoid being cringe," they would cringe in hindsight. It is often set against cool, as in Instagram's slide "from cool to cringe."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Taylor Swift told NYU graduates that attempts to avoid being cringe would not prevent retrospective embarrassment. opgaver.kvuc.dk
Instagram's changing reputation was described with the words from cool to cringe. theatlantic.com
3
flinchverbintransitive
To flinch, recoil, or shrink back, as in reaction to disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
He cringed and stepped back as the dog lunged at the fence.
Soldiers cringe instinctively when shells burst nearby.
Similarflinch, recoil, cower, shrink, wince
Note
The physical flinch from which the rest of the family grows. The body still bends and draws back in older uses: Bunyan's boys "cringe behind" for fear of the lions, stepping back as they shrink. Melville's narrator praises a man who "had never cringed," a phrase that already hints at cowardice.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Bunyan's boys cringe behind because they fear the lions, stepping back. gutenberg.org
The words “had never cringed” occur in Melville's description of a man. gutenberg.org
4
embarrassing postsnounslanguncountable
Content, especially online, awkward or embarrassing enough to make onlookers feel secondhand embarrassment.
That forum is dedicated to collecting the internet's finest cringe.
His acceptance speech was peak cringe.
UsageUsed without a in this meaning: peak cringe, so much cringe.
Note
Internet slang that turns a feeling into a substance. Kaitlyn Tiffany, writing in The Atlantic (2022), describes whole Instagram accounts devoted to compiling it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Kaitlyn Tiffany wrote the referenced Atlantic article in 2022. theatlantic.com
Tiffany describes Instagram accounts devoted to compiling cringe. theatlantic.com
5
nouncountable
A gesture or posture in which someone recoils or shrinks back.
A visible cringe ran through the crowd at the gory scene.
She answered with a cringe and a step backward.
Similarwince, flinch, shudder, recoil
6
please the powerfulverbfigurativelyintransitive
To behave in a servile or fawning way toward someone, often by bowing or crouching low.
Terrified of his temper, the courtiers would cringe before the young emperor and praise his every word.
He cringed before the committee, agreeing with everything they said.
UsageWith before or to: cringe before the emperor, cringe to donors.
Similargrovel, fawn, kowtow, crawl
Note
With no bow required, the servility becomes conduct alone. Macaulay sets the word against its opposite in The History of England, where the clergy taught "the people to cringe and the prince to domineer." That pairing is a useful guide: the word implies a master. In this sense it describes a political or moral posture rather than a bodily one.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Macaulay wrote The History of England. gutenberg.org
The work contains the exact quoted words, referring to what the clergy taught. gutenberg.org

Less common meanings

7
how awkwardinterjectionslang
Said in reaction to something awkward or embarrassing enough to cause secondhand embarrassment.
Cringe. Nobody dances like that at a wedding anymore.
He watched the clip, typed "cringe," and kept scrolling.
Similaryikes, oof
Note
The shortest form of the verdict: a single word, often typed as a reply on its own, that dismisses whatever came before.
8
nounfigurativelycountable
An act or habitual disposition of fawning, servile submission.
The courtier's practiced cringe earned him no real respect.
He responded to power with a cringe rather than a backbone.
Similarservility, obsequiousness, groveling
9
verbobsoletetransitive
To draw a part of the body in close, or to screw up or wrinkle the face or another feature.
Whip him Fellowes, / Till like a Boy you ſee him crindge his face, / And whine aloud for mercy.
c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”
Note
An obsolete transitive use, in which a person cringes one part of the body rather than the whole self. In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare has a man whipped "till like a boy you see him crindge his face." Nashe pictures people "cringing in their necks, like rats." It stays closest to the old causative meaning "to cause to turn," the root behind the physical flinch.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
The body-part sense is an obsolete transitive use. en.wiktionary.org
Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra contains the quoted instruction to whip a man; Antony gives the order concerning Thidias. folgerdigitaltexts.org
Nashe describes people drawing in their necks with the quoted comparison to rats; the quotation modernizes the original spelling. en.wiktionary.org
Cringe, including its physical-flinching sense, derives from a causative ancestor meaning to cause to fall or turn. en.wiktionary.org
10
verbobsoletetransitive
To bow or crouch servilely before someone, or to accompany someone with fawning, cringing manners.
Note
An obsolete transitive pattern in which the person honored is the direct object, with no to or before: courtiers once cringed the king. The second meaning, escorting someone with fawning bows, belongs only to older texts.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The obsolete servile sense could take the person honored as its direct object, without a preposition. en.wiktionary.org
The sense of escorting someone with cringing manners is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
11
noundialectalBritish
A painful muscular cramp or spasm in some part of the body; a crick.

Practice

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Origin

Middle English crengen, the source of the verb, meant to bend in a haughty manner or to condescend. It came from an Old English causative form meaning "to cause to fall or turn," and goes back through Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root *grenǵʰ- ("to turn"). Danish krænge, Dutch krengen and Swedish kränga are cognates, crinkle is a doublet, and the noun and adjective were formed from the verb by zero derivation.