Associations to the word «Cringing»

Wiktionary

CRINGE, noun. A posture or gesture of shrinking or recoiling.
CRINGE, noun. (dialect) A crick.
CRINGE, verb. (dated) (intransitive) To bow or crouch in servility.
CRINGE, verb. (intransitive) To shrink, tense or recoil, as in fear, disgust or embarrassment.
CRINGE, verb. (transitive) (obsolete) To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.

Dictionary definition

CRINGE, verb. Draw back, as with fear or pain; "she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf".
CRINGE, verb. Show submission or fear.

Wise words

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
William Butler Yeats