cringe

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See also: Cringe

English

WOTD – 29 January 2021

Etymology

A former nun working as a prostitute cringes (sense 1) in terror and remorse before Clement, a Dominican friar, who seeks to help her return to the convent, an episode from Charles Reade’s novel The Cloister and the Hearth (1861).[n 1]

The verb is derived from Middle English crengen (“to bend in a haughty manner; to condescend”) [and other forms],[1] from Old English *crenċan, *crenċġan, *crenġan (“to cause to fall or turn”), the causative of crinċġan (“to yield; to cringe; to fall; to die, perish”),[2] from Proto-Germanic *krangijaną (“to cause to fall; to cause to turn”), from Proto-Germanic *kringaną, *krinkaną (“to fall; to turn; to yield”) (from Proto-Indo-European *grenǵʰ- (“to turn”)) + *-janą (suffix forming causatives with the sense ‘to cause to do (the action of the verb)’ from strong verbs). The English word is cognate with Danish krænge (“to turn inside out, evert”), Dutch krengen (“to careen, veer”) and Dutch kring (“circle”), Scots crenge, creenge, creinge, crienge (“to cringe; to shrug”), Swedish kränga (“to careen; to heel, lurch; to toss”), and West Frisian kringe (“to pinch; to poke; to push; to insist, urge”); and is a doublet of crinkle.

The noun[3] and adjective are derived from the verb via zero derivation.

Pronunciation

Verb

cringe (third-person singular simple present cringes, present participle cringing, simple past and past participle cringed)

  1. (intransitive) To cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
    He cringed as the bird collided with the window.
    • 1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That which is to Come: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, →OCLC, page 69:
      [W]hen 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, ſo they ſtept back and went behind.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “A Bosom Friend”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 55:
      And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor.
    • 1860, [John B. Newman], “The Combat”, in Wa-Wa-Wanda: A Legend of Old Orange, New York, N.Y.: Rudd & Carleton, […], →OCLC, page 28:
      Here the angel ceased, and frowning, / Hurled his heavy gauntlet at him; / Hurled, as best he could, the creature, / Cringing as the Serpent cringeth, / Coiled, and with his crest uplifted; / And then prone upon his belly, / Crawled away upon his belly, [...]
    • 1917 April, Jack London, chapter VIII, in Jerry of the Islands, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 115:
      But he [Jerry, a dog] made no whimper. Nor did he wince or cringe to the blows. He bored straight in, striving, without avoiding a blow, to beat and meet the blow with his teeth.
    • 2017 March 28, Owen Jones, “The bigots are on the march – and with 'Legs-it' the Daily Mail bears the flag”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-01:
      Perhaps the Daily Mail should be sued for damaging people's health? Across the nation, millions have cringed so hard at its audaciously sexist front page that they've strained their face muscles, or given themselves a migraine from slamming their heads repeatedly against the nearest wall.
  2. (intransitive, figuratively) To experience an inward feeling of disgust, embarrassment, or fear; (by extension) to feel very embarrassed.
    • 2014 January 29, Matt Peckham, “8 Minutes of Ridiculously Beautiful The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Footage”, in Time‎[2], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-16:
      I'm cringing watching this easily Blizzard- or Square Enix-worthy new trailer for Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls Online. Not because it's bad — it's a deftly rendered slice of CGI. But it must have cost a fortune. It makes me want to say "Spend the money on knocking the game out of the park, please, not the frippery, Bethesda." But oh what frippery.
  3. (intransitive) To bow or crouch in servility.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Loue of Learning; or Ouer-much Study. With a Digression of the Misery of Schollers, and Why the Muses are Melancholy.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 15, page 113:
      [I]f they keepe their wits, yet they are accompted fooles by reaſon of their carriage, becauſe they cannot ride a horſe, which euery Clowne can doe; ſalute and court a Gentlewoman, carue at table, cringe and make congies, which euery common ſwaſher can doe, [...]
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 958–961:
      And thou ſly hypocrite, who now wouldſt ſeem / Patron of liberty, who more then thou / Once fawn'd,and cring'd, and ſervilly ador'd / Heav'ns awful Monarch?
    • 1846, Thomas Cooper, “To the Countess of Blessington”, in The Baron’s Yule Feast: A Christmas-rhyme, London: Jeremiah How, […], →OCLC:
      Lady, receive a tributary lay / From one who cringeth not to titled state / Conventional, and lacking will to prate / Of comeliness— [...]
    • 1891, Edgar Fawcett, “How a Queen Loved”, in Songs of Doubt and Dream: (Poems), New York, N.Y., Toronto, Ont.: Funk & Wagnalls, →OCLC, stanza I, page 155:
      Humbly thou cringest that with nod of head / Couldst fling me seaward from they steepest cliffs!
    • 1902, Jack London, “Bâtard”, in The Faith of Men and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., published September 1904, →OCLC, page 207:
      Leclère was bent on the coming of the day when Bâtard [a dog] should wilt in spirit and cringe and whimper at his feet.
    • 1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of Alexander Crummell”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, page 219:
      He heard the hateful clank of their chains; he felt them cringe and grovel, and there rose within him a protest and a prophecy.
  4. (intransitive, figuratively) To act in an obsequious or servile manner.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To draw (a body part) close to the body; also, to distort or wrinkle (the face, etc.).
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To bow or crouch to (someone) in servility; to escort (someone) in a cringing manner.

Conjugation

Conjugation of cringe
infinitive (to) cringe
present tense past tense
1st-person singular cringe cringed
2nd-person singular cringe, cringest† cringed, cringedst†
3rd-person singular cringes, cringeth† cringed
plural cringe
subjunctive cringe cringed
imperative cringe —
participles cringing cringed

†Archaic or obsolete.

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Noun

cringe (countable and uncountable, plural cringes)

  1. (countable) A gesture or posture of cringing (recoiling or shrinking).
    He glanced with a cringe at the mess on his desk.
  2. (countable, figuratively) An act or disposition of servile obeisance.
  3. (countable, British, dialectal) A crick (“painful muscular cramp or spasm of some part of the body”).
  4. (uncountable, slang, derogatory) Things, particularly online content, which would cause an onlooker to cringe from secondhand embarrassment.
    Bro... you just posted cringe
    There was so much cringe in that episode!
    • 2022 May 24, “A Novelist and an AI Cowrote Your Next Cringe-Read”, in Wired‎[3], San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-19:
      Los Angeles-based writer K. Allado-McDowell's new novel, Amor Cringe, is a love letter to cringe maximalism.
    • 2022 January 15, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “How Did We Get So ’Cringe’?”, in The Atlantic‎[4], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-10:
      Soon, there were Instagram compilation accounts dedicated to collecting the worst cringe, with a focus on cringe created by not-quite-random people who were performing, and failing, for thousands of their peers on TikTok.
    • 2023 April 23, Taylor Lorenz, “’Am I Cringey? Yes. Do I Care? Absolutely Not’”, in Rolling Stone‎[5], New York, N.Y.: Penske Media Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-22:
      Many young people are also reevaluating what once constituted cringe, attributing use of the term to unacknowledged bigotry more than just a rejection of sincerity. Some niche communities, such as furries, anime fans, and fetish groups, who were once mocked on social media, have since amassed cultural power that has launched them into the mainstream.

Translations

Adjective

cringe (comparative more cringe, superlative most cringe)

  1. (slang, derogatory) Synonym of cringeworthy or uncool, inducing awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment.
    Brands trying to appeal to young people with memes is the most cringe thing ever.
    • 2022 May 24, Kate Knibbs, quoting Taylor Swift, “A Novelist and an AI Cowrote Your Next Cringe-Read”, in Wired‎[6], →ISSN:
      Last week, while giving a commencement speech to New York University graduates, pop star Taylor Swift offered a timely bit of advice: “No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime.”
    • 2022 July 5, Darshita Goyal, “What's The Deal With Baby Talk In Relationships?”, in Refinery29‎[7], archived from the original on 9 September 2023:
      No matter which side you stand on within a relationship, most people agree that couples participating in baby talk publicly is cringe to say the least.
    • 2022 November 30, Kate Lindsay, “Instagram Is Over”, in The Atlantic‎[8], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-18:
      Instagram may not be on its deathbed, but its transformation from cool to cringe is a sea change in the social-media universe.
    • 2023 January 20, Laura Pitcher, “Why Is AI Art So Cringe?”, in VICE‎[9], archived from the original on 2023-05-02:
      We may have to face the fact that the current state of AI art is cringe because we're cringe. Really, we're no better than the unimaginative and self-obsessed people from the history books that commissioned bad portraiture.

Interjection

cringe

  1. (slang, derogatory) Stated in response to something cringeworthy.

Descendants

Notes

  1. ^ From Charles Reade (1861) chapter XXXIII, in The Cloister and the Hearth: A Tale of the Middle Ages, illustrated library edition, volume II (The Autobiography of a Thief), Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Colonial Press Company, published c. 1900, →OCLC, illustration between pages 312 and 313.

References

  1. ^ “crenǧen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Compare “cringe, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, November 2010; “cringe, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “cringe, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, November 2010; “cringe, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

German

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cringe.

Pronunciation

Adjective

cringe (indeclinable, predicative only)

  1. (neologism, chiefly youth slang) cringe, cringeworthy
    • 2020 November 12, Sinan Ilhan Dogru, Ich bin angekommen‎[10], BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, →OCLC, Dein bester Freund, page 23:
      Dieses Buch ist nicht nur ein Buch, sondern auch gleichzeitig dein bester Freund. Klingt bisschen cringe, ist aber trotzdem die Wahrheit.
      This book is not just a book, but also your best friend. Sounds a bit cringe, but it's the truth.

Further reading

  • “cringe” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • “cringe” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cringe.

Pronunciation

Noun

cringe m (invariable)

  1. (neologism, slang) cringe

Adjective

cringe (invariable, superlative cringissimo)

  1. (neologism, slang) cringy

Derived terms

Polish

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cringe.

Pronunciation

Noun

cringe m inan

  1. (slang) cringe, cringeworthiness (awkwardness or embarrassment which causes an onlooker to cringe)
    Synonyms: obciach, przypał, siara

Declension

Declension of cringe
singular plural
nominative cringe cringe'e
genitive cringe'u cringe'ów
dative cringe'owi cringe'om
accusative cringe cringe'e
instrumental cringe'em cringe'ami
locative cringe'u cringe'ach
vocative cringe'u cringe'e

Further reading

  • cringe at Obserwatorium językowe Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cringe.

Pronunciation

 

  • Rhymes: (Brazil) -ĩʒi, (Portugal) -ĩdʒ
  • Hyphenation: crin‧ge

Noun

cringe m (invariable)

  1. (neologism, Internet slang) cringe (content that embarrasses onlookers)

Adjective

cringe m or f (plural cringes)

  1. (neologism, Internet slang) cringeworthy

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cringe.

Noun

cringe m (uncountable)

  1. (neologism) cringe (something that is so awkward or embarrassing that it's almost unbearable to watch or experience)

Declension

declension of cringe (singular only)
singular
m gender indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) cringe cringeul
genitive/dative (unui) cringe cringeului
vocative cringeule

Adjective

cringe m or f or n (indeclinable)

  1. (neologism) cringe (something that is so awkward or embarrassing that it's almost unbearable to watch or experience)

Declension

Declension of cringe (invariable)
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite cringe cringe cringe cringe
definite — — — —
genitive/
dative 		indefinite cringe cringe cringe cringe
definite — — — —

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English cringe.

Pronunciation

Noun

cringe m (plural #)

  1. (neologism) cringe

Adjective

cringe m or f (masculine and feminine plural cringes)

  1. (neologism) cringy

Swedish

Adjective

cringe (comparative mer cringe, superlative mest cringe)

  1. (slang) cringe
    De tyckte engelska lånord var cringe
    They thought English loanwords were cringe

Usage notes

Uninflected.

See also

References

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