Other forms: cringing, cringed, cringes
To cringe is to pull back in embarrassment or distaste. Cringe at the memory, made me cringe, cringed inwardly.
It is a physical flinch used for a social feeling, and the modern use as an adjective — that's so cringe — has dropped the verb entirely. Cringeworthy is the older adjective. To cringe before somebody is to grovel, which is the original sense and now the rarer one. Note that the Old English verb meant to cause to fall.
1verbcringeTo pull back in embarrassment or distaste.
“I cringe when I watch old videos of myself singing at school.”
2verbbehaveTo behave with servile fear.
“The servants cringed before their cruel master, afraid to meet his eyes.”
cringe is a flinching.
Middle English crengen comes from an Old English verb meaning to cause to fall or turn. Crank and cringle come from the same bending.
Proto-Indo-European
*grenǵʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*krangijaną — to cause to fall; to cause to turn
Old English
*crenġan
Middle English
crengen — to bend in a haughty manner; to condescend
English, today
cringe
Built from
The verb is derived from Middle English crengen (“to bend in a haughty manner; to condescend”)crenche, crenchen, crenge, crinchen, crinken, from Old English crenġan, crenċġan, crenċan (“to cause to fall or turn”) from Proto-Germanic krangijaną (“to cause to fall; to cause to turn”), causative of Proto-Germanic kringaną, krinkaną (“to fall; to turn; to yield”) (> cringan (“to yield; to cringe; to fall; to die, perish”)), from Proto-Indo-European grenǵʰ- (“to turn”)). The causative suffix is from -janą. 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 a doublet of crinkle*. The noun and adjective are derived from the verb via zero derivation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Body Language & Gestures