• IPA: /ˈkɹɪndʒ/

cringe

1. A posture or gesture of shrinking or recoiling.

   He glanced with a cringe at the mess on his desk.

2. (dated) A servile obeisance.
3. (dialect) A crick.
4. (uncountable, slang) An embarrassing event or situation which causes an onlooker to cringe.

   There was so much cringe in that episode!

• German: Schaudern, Erschaudern, Zusammenzucken, Zusammenfahren, Ducken
• Italian: raggomitolamento
• Russian: содрогание

cringe (cringes, present participle cringing; past and past participle cringed)

1. (intransitive) To shrink, cower, tense or recoil, as in fear, disgust or embarrassment.

   He cringed as the bird collided with the window.

   • 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.

2. (dated, intransitive) To bow or crouch in servility.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Sly hypocrite, […] who more than thou / Once fawned and cringed, and servilely adored / Heaven's awful monarch?

   • 1904, Jack London, Batard in The Faith of Men,

     Leclere was bent on the coming of the day when Batard should wilt in spirit and cringe and whimper at his feet.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene xiii]:

     Till like a boy you see him cringe his face, / And whine aloud for mercy.

• German: zurückschrecken, zusammenzucken, schaudern, erschaudern, zusammenfahren, sich ducken, kriechen
• Italian: raggomitolarsi, rannicchiarsi
• Portuguese: encolher-se
• Russian: отпря́нуть
• Spanish: encoger, contraerse