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Cringing   /krˈɪndʒɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Cringe  v. t.  (past & past part. cringed; pres. part. cringing)  To draw one's self together as in fear or servility; to bend or crouch with base humility; to wince; hence, to make court in a degrading manner; to fawn. "When 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." "Sly hypocrite,... who more than thou Once fawned and cringed, and servilely adored Heaven's awful monarch?" "Flatterers... are always bowing and cringing."



Cringe  v. t.  To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort. (Obs.) "Till like a boy you see him cringe his face, And whine aloud for mercy."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Cringing" Quotes from Famous Books



... self, can there be anything so inclusive as being true to your manhood? Stand upright and do not be either cringing or vulgarly self-assertive. Be righteous. Let your words and deeds correspond. Lead no double life. ...
— Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose - His Life and Speeches • Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose

... cart ready to start, and a keen, thin, impatient, black-a-vised little man, his hand at his gray horse's head, looking about angrily for something. "Rab, ye thief!" said he, aiming a kick at my great friend, who drew cringing up, and avoiding the heavy shoe with more agility than dignity, and watching his master's eye, slunk dismayed under the cart,—his ears down, and as much as he had ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown

... and with faded grins make allusions to the feeling of despair occasioned by the absence of the beloved works of art. Bah! I would offer them a pinch of snuff out of my box as I walked along my gallery, with their Excellencies cringing after me. Zenobia was a fine woman and a queen, but she had to walk in Aurelian's triumph. The procede was peu delicat? En usez vous, mon cher monsieur! (The marquis says the "Macaba" is delicious.) What a splendor of color there is in that cloud! What a richness, what a freedom of handling, ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray

... sandbags, mattresses, or little heaps of earth piled over cellar windows; streets in which the only sound was that of one's own feet, where the loneliness was made more lonely by some forgotten dog cringing against the closed door and barking nervously as one ...
— Antwerp to Gallipoli - A Year of the War on Many Fronts--and Behind Them • Arthur Ruhl

... even in that he had gained the form if not the substance, for the world regarded him as a man of proven courage. It seemed to him a grim and hideous joke, and he wondered what his friends would think if they knew that the very commonplace adventure planned for this evening filled him with a cringing horror. The prospect of this trip into the Italian quarter with the probability of encountering Narcone turned him cold and sick. His hands were like ice and the muscles of his back were twitching nervously; he could feel his heart pound as he let his thoughts have free play. ...
— The Net • Rex Beach


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