In this guide, you will learn the word cringe’s meaning, where it comes from, how to use it, synonyms, antonyms, examples, and more!
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Kevin
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January 10, 2022
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There are so many wonderfully descriptive words in the English language. Too often we hear words used without learning what they really mean.
Understanding more about what words mean, where they come from, and how to use them can expand our vocabulary and give us a deeper appreciation for the books we read (and the conversations we have).
Diving into the meaning of the word cringe can help give it new meaning the next time you see or hear it used.
What Is the Definition of the Word Cringe?
When you search the definition of cringe in the English dictionary, you’ll discover the word has three meanings.
As a Verb
As a verb, to cringe means that a person feels disgusted or embarrassed. This feeling often has an outward expression shown through a facial or body movement.
For example, look at these sentences:
- I cringe when someone does something extremely awkward.
- The thought of stepping in that makes me cringe.
Also, as a verb, the word cringe means that person makes a sudden movement out of fear. This is usually fear of being hit or being hurt.
Let’s look at this definition in a sentence:
- James would cringe every time the bully lunged at him.
- The way she would cringe at the slightest sound broke my heart.
Other definitions for the word cringe as a verb include:
- To recoil out of distaste
- To cower or shrink in fear
- To act in an excessively humble manner
- To contract a person’s own muscles involuntarily as a response to something unpleasant like pain or cold
As a Noun
As a noun, a cringe is typically an act of servility, such as a bow.
Take these sentences, for example:
- The cringe rattled through her body.
- The dog’s cringe indicated that it had been severely humbled.
The past participle of cringe is cringed, and the present participle of cringe is cringing.
What Is the Origin of the Word Cringe?
The word cringe comes from the Middle English crengen, crenchen, or crenche. This relates to the Old English word cringan or crincan, which meant to bend, perish, yield, die, or fall in battle. This itself stemms from the Old Norse krangr, which meant weak.
The Old English cringan has Germanic origins, and it relates to the Dutch krengen. Kregen meant heel over. It also connects to the German krank — which means sick — and to the Middle High German krenken, which meant to weaken.
According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language, words from Older Scottish Tongue used up until 1700 included crenge, creenge, creinge, or crienge, which all also meant to cringe.
This can be traced back further to the Proto-Germanic word kringaną or krinkaną, which meant “to fall.” It’s interesting how the word has maintained so much of its original meaning.
When Can You Use the Word Cringe?
How you choose to use the word cringe is up to you, but it’s often used when a person feels fear, disgust, a sudden feeling of embarrassment, or a disturbed feeling creeping inside of you.
When you cringe, you may shake, shudder, involuntarily shrug, or have an involuntary movement of your face. Thanks to the internet, we are often inundated with memes that cause us to cringe.
You might use the word cringe to describe how a person behaves in a timid way or with complete deference towards someone. They might crouch, crawl, or act with base humility in some other servile way.
In colloquial use, some use the word as an adjective to describe a situation that causes the feeling of secondhand embarrassment, such as:
- The degrading manner of the task was just so cringe.
- Watching Trey fumble with his words trying to ask her out was just too cringe for me.
What Are Synonyms for the Word Cringe?
Synonyms are useful tools that help use different words to convey the same meaning of another word. Here are some of the synonyms for the word cringe:
- Shrink
- Cower
- Recoil
- Draw back
- Flinch
- Fawn
- Wince
- Tremble
- Shudder
- Blanche
What Are Antonyms for the Word Cringe?
Antonyms have the opposite meaning of a particular word. Here are some antonyms for the word cringe:
- Confront
- Dare
- Defy
- Face
What Is the Past and Present Tense of Cringe?
Because the word cringe can be used as a verb, we can use it in the past, present, and future tense. Here is each tense in its singular and plural form:
- Present Tense: Cringes / Cringe
- Present Continuous Tense: Is cringing / Are cringing
- Present Perfect Tense: Has cringed / Have cringed
- Present Perfect Continuous Tense: Has been cringing / Have been cringing
- Simple Past Tense: Cringed
- Past Continuous Tense: Was cringing / Were cringing
- Past Perfect Tense: Had cringed
- Past Perfect Continuous Tense: Had been cringing
- Simple Future Tense: Will cringe
- Future Continuous Tense: Will be cringing
- Future Perfect Tense: Will have cringed
- Future Perfect Continuous Tense: Will have been cringing
What Are Examples of the Word Cringe?
Here are some examples of how to use the word cringe in a sentence:
- Try not to cringe when you look at it.
- This misuse of “your” and “you’re” made the English teachers cringe.
- He cringed at the thought of eating another bite of broccoli.
- Her nose would wrinkle when she cringed at the smell.
Conclusion
Now you know the meaning of the word cringe, so you can use it in your daily life and know how to properly explain the cringe-y situations you encounter!
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