Other forms: wincing, winced
To wince is to screw up the face in sudden pain. Wince at the sound, made him wince, wince visibly.
It is involuntary and brief, which is why it gives away what somebody feels before they can decide to hide it — clinicians and interrogators both watch for it. Figuratively you wince at bad writing or an embarrassing memory. Note that the word came from a Frankish verb meaning to bend or flinch.
1verbwinceTo screw up the face in sudden pain.
“She winced as the nurse pulled off the plaster.”
wince is a flinching.
Anglo-Norman winchir comes from a Frankish verb meaning to bend aside. Wink and wench come from related bending.
Frankish
*wankjan
Anglo-Norman
winchir
Middle English
wyncen
English, today
wince
Built from
From Middle English wyncen, from Anglo-Norman winchir (compare Old French guenchir), from Frankish wankjan, related to winkijan (“to flex, bend”). See also German winken.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Body Language & Gestures