Definition of Cringe at BrainyQuote.com

Definition of Cringe

Cringe

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.

To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.

Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility.

Related Definitions:

As, Base, Bend, Bowing, Cause, Contract, Court, Crouch, Degrading, Distort, Draw, Fawn, Fawning, Fear, Hence, Humility, In, Make, Manner, One, Or, Self, Servile, Servility, Shrink, Shrinking, To, Together, Wince, With, Wrinkle

Cringe Quotations

Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Early on, I found the attention completely embarrassing. I'd cringe if I saw my picture on the cover of a magazine.
Julie Christie

There's something about each of my books that I'm really proud of, and there's something about each of my books that I cringe over.
Margaret Haddix

I used to look back at pictures and cringe but actually I'm quite proud that I've had fun with fashion and don't always look perfect. The only regret I have is when I look at something I wore when I was very young and it obviously looks like it belonged to someone else.
Emma Watson

Five years from now I'm probably going to look back on the things I'm doing and cringe.
Fiona Apple

I honestly have no interest in celebrity whatsoever. If anything, I always cringe at it because it takes away from what I am, which is an actor who wants to be better and do better things.
Jude Law

I don't really cringe over any of my albums.
Sheryl Crow

I suppose I sometimes used to act like I wasn't a human being... Sometimes I look back at myself and remember things I used to say, or my hairstyle, and I cringe.
Madonna Ciccone

I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?
Irwin Shaw

I would hope that people didn't think I was anything like Joan! It's very hard for me because Joan says such cruel things all the time. It sort of makes me cringe every time I read them because I think, 'Who could be so horrible?' To be able to deliver those lines and do them with a coolness, yet still make her likable, is a bit of a challenge.
Christina Hendricks

I have a hard time watching the shows now. It is like opening up a yearbook when you were in junior high. I think everybody looks back at their photos and cringe, and I get to experience it with everybody else in the world looking at mine.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar

You can't knock somebody for how they got into the business. I'm sure I'm gonna look back at 'Roswell' and some of my first movies and I'm gonna cringe.
Colin Hanks

Every genuine boy is a rebel and an anarch. If he were allowed to develop according to his own instincts, his own inclinations, society would undergo such a radical transformation as to make the adult revolutionary cower and cringe.
John Andrew Holmes

I can't stand to see myself act. It just makes me cringe.
Thomas Jane

When I look back at the way that I was in that documentary I cringe.
Benjamin Cohen

I don't cringe when I think of doing old material. A lot of the people have been with me through the years.
Steve Forbert

More Cringe Quotations

Cringe Translations

cringe in German is kriechen
cringe in Spanish is encogerse
cringe in Swedish is svansa, krypa

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