cringe
/ˈkɹɪnd͡ʒ/ noun C2- A gesture or posture of cringing (recoiling or shrinking). · He glanced with a cringe at the mess on his desk.
- An act or disposition of servile obeisance.
- 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!
Plural cringes
From the library
Sometimes the road went through woods where maples were beginning to hang out scarlet banners; sometimes it crossed rivers on bridges that made Anne’s flesh cringe with the old, half-delightful fear; sometimes it wound along a harbor shore and passed by a little cluster of weather-gray fishing huts; again it mounted to hills whence a far sweep of curving upland or misty-blue sky could be seen; but wherever it went there was much of interest to discuss.
For many decades, a significant cultural cringe existed, prompting ambitious individuals to artificially modify their speech toward the Cultivated ideal.
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