/ krɪndʒ; NAmE / verb [ v ]
1.
to move back and/or away from sb because you are afraid
SYN cower :
a child cringing in terror
2.
to feel very embarrassed and uncomfortable about sth :
I cringe when I think of the poems I wrote then.
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WORD ORIGIN
Middle English crenge , crenche , related to Old English cringan , crincan bend, yield, fall in battle , of Germanic origin and related to Dutch krengen heel over and German krank sick, also to the verb crank .