Definition of "cringe"
cringe
verb
third-person singular simple present cringes, present participle cringing, simple past and past participle cringed
(intransitive) To cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
Quotations
[W]hen 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, ſo they ſtept back and went behind.
1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That which is to Come: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […]; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, page 69
And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “A Bosom Friend”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, page 55
Here the angel ceased, and frowning, / Hurled his heavy gauntlet at him; / Hurled, as best he could, the creature, / Cringing as the Serpent cringeth, / Coiled, and with his crest uplifted; / And then prone upon his belly, / Crawled away upon his belly, [...]
1860, [John B. Newman], “The Combat”, in Wa-Wa-Wanda: A Legend of Old Orange, New York, N.Y.: Rudd & Carleton, […], page 28
Perhaps the Daily Mail should be sued for damaging people's health? Across the nation, millions have cringed so hard at its audaciously sexist front page that they've strained their face muscles, or given themselves a migraine from slamming their heads repeatedly against the nearest wall.
2017 March 28, Owen Jones, “The bigots are on the march – and with ’Legs-it’ the Daily Mail bears the flag”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 2022-12-01
(intransitive, figuratively) To experience an inward feeling of disgust, embarrassment, or fear; (by extension) to feel very embarrassed.
Quotations
I'm cringing watching this easily Blizzard- or Square Enix-worthy new trailer for Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls Online. Not because it's bad — it's a deftly rendered slice of CGI. But it must have cost a fortune. It makes me want to say "Spend the money on knocking the game out of the park, please, not the frippery, Bethesda." But oh what frippery.
2014 January 29, Matt Peckham, “8 Minutes of Ridiculously Beautiful The Elder Scrolls Online Cinematic Footage”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., archived from the original on 2022-08-16
(intransitive) To bow or crouch in servility.
Quotations
[I]f they keepe their wits, yet they are accompted fooles by reaſon of their carriage, becauſe they cannot ride a horſe, which euery Clowne can doe; ſalute and court a Gentlewoman, carue at table, cringe and make congies, which euery common ſwaſher can doe, [...]
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Loue of Learning; or Ouer-much Study. With a Digression of the Misery of Schollers, and Why the Muses are Melancholy.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 15, page 113
And thou ſly hypocrite, who now wouldſt ſeem / Patron of liberty, who more then thou / Once fawn'd,and cring'd, and ſervilly ador'd / Heav'ns awful Monarch?
1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 958–961
He heard the hateful clank of their chains; he felt them cringe and grovel, and there rose within him a protest and a prophecy.
1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of Alexander Crummell”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., page 219
(intransitive, figuratively) To act in an obsequious or servile manner.
Quotations
Their [the clergy's] chief business, during a quarter of a century, had been to teach the people to cringe and the prince to domineer.
1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 105
Even to the present day the Arabs consider treating a Hutaymi as unmanly as to strike a woman. When a Felláh says to another, "Tat'hattim" (= Tat'maskin, or Tat'zallí), he means, "Thou cringest, thou makest thyself contemptible (as a Hutaymi)."
1880 June 23, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Ethnology of Modern Midian”, in Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, volume XII (Second Series), London: John Murray, […]; Trübner and Co., […], published 1882, part I (Notices of the Tribes of Midian, [...]), page 286
(transitive, obsolete) To draw (a body part) close to the body; also, to distort or wrinkle (the face, etc.).
Quotations
Whip him Fellowes, / Till like a Boy you ſee him crindge his face, / And whine aloud for mercy.
c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene xiii], page 357, column 2
noun
countable and uncountable, plural cringes
(uncountable, slang, derogatory) Things, particularly online content, which would cause an onlooker to cringe from secondhand embarrassment.
Quotations
Soon, there were Instagram compilation accounts dedicated to collecting the worst cringe, with a focus on cringe created by not-quite-random people who were performing, and failing, for thousands of their peers on TikTok.
2022 January 15, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “How Did We Get So ’Cringe’?”, in The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, archived from the original on 2023-05-10
Many young people are also reevaluating what once constituted cringe, attributing use of the term to unacknowledged bigotry more than just a rejection of sincerity. Some niche communities, such as furries, anime fans, and fetish groups, who were once mocked on social media, have since amassed cultural power that has launched them into the mainstream.
2023 April 23, Taylor Lorenz, “’Am I Cringey? Yes. Do I Care? Absolutely Not’”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Penske Media Corporation, archived from the original on 2023-06-22
adjective
comparative more cringe, superlative most cringe
(slang, derogatory) Inducing awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment; lame, uncool, cringy.
Quotations
Last week, while giving a commencement speech to New York University graduates, pop star Taylor Swift offered a timely bit of advice: “No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime.”
2022 May 24, Kate Knibbs, quoting Taylor Swift, “A Novelist and an AI Cowrote Your Next Cringe-Read”, in Wired
We may have to face the fact that the current state of AI art is cringe because we're cringe. Really, we're no better than the unimaginative and self-obsessed people from the history books that commissioned bad portraiture.
2023 January 20, Laura Pitcher, “Why Is AI Art So Cringe?”, in VICE, archived from the original on 2023-05-02