cringe (v.)

  1. draw back, as with fear or pain; she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf

    [ Syn: flinch , squinch , funk , shrink , wince , recoil , quail ]

  2. show submission or fear

    [ Syn: fawn , crawl , creep , cower , grovel ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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