(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.
(n.) Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility.
Example Sentences:
(1) One test he passed: he could say he loved his country, its values and its spirit without causing a toe-curling cringe.
(2) Inequality, precarity and social division are the causes of our new callousness, helped by the rightwing press, but the real point is that Labour has only two choices in response: either continue to cringe before the prejudices of the public or try to change their minds by arguing for a distinct, simple and compelling alternative.
(3) They cringed even more when I used the word “psychosomatic”.
(4) There’s no doubt there are large swaths within the industry who are committed to overturning this divisive hostility towards women, just as there are men who cringe at the term “brogrammer”.
(5) Second-chance Sunday in Gosford In truth, Justin Pasfield’s calamitous goalkeeping against Newcastle last week was about as cringe-worthy as his new hipster beard-haircut combination.
(6) But there are other dimensions to the Games that should be embraced without cringing.
(7) – rather than on the man’s indecent entitlement, grubbiness and criminality.” 'These women are not statistics' – deaths in Australia in 2015 Read more Surely Lay would cringe, then, at comments made by Victorian homicide squad head, detective inspector Mick Hughes, following the brutal and seemingly random killing of 17-year-old schoolgirl, Masa Vukotic, in broad daylight while she was out walking as part of her usual exercise routine.
(8) It also prompted a collective cringe from many in the Republican political establishment, which is now facing the prospect of losing control of the Senate and even the House because of the drag faced by down-ballot candidates campaigning into the headwinds of their presidential nominee.
(9) As baffling as it may be to those of us whose approach to music festivals is to wear the same clothes for the whole weekend, and to think anyone who bothers brushing their teeth is just trying to be fancy, somehow festivals have become – and I cringe so hard as I write this phrase – "trendsetters".
(10) I cringe when I hear our political leadership deliver yet another speech extolling a commitment to fighting extremism, yet in almost the time it takes to draw their next breath, go on to announce cuts to community services groups, the kind of organisations whose roles are vital in addressing the risk factors that leave one vulnerable to extremism.
(11) … You’re going to get what I think, whether you like it or not, whether it makes you cringe every once in a while or not.” Decrying “bickering leaders in Washington DC”, Christie held out his record as a fiscally conservative governor with a record early in his tenure of bipartisan victories as evidence of change he could bring to the national capital.
(12) The composer Charles Ives, for instance, spent his whole career in a sort of cringe, fearfully anticipating the accusation that to make music was a “sissy” activity.
(13) Sometimes I cringe at the lack of awareness of problems they’re causing other road users.
(14) Electrical stimulation of the superior colliculus in rats elicits not only orienting movements, as it does in other mammals, but also behaviours resembling such natural defensive responses as prolonged freezing, cringing, shying, and fast running and jumping.
(15) Nonetheless, some of Bashir's voters' views must be hard to stomach: informed that one of his voters had just told the Guardian that they were voting for Ukip "because Enoch Powell was right," he failed to suppress a cringe before saying: "The world is full of people of different persuasions.
(16) I cringed when I watched Abedin defend her husband Anthony Weiner in a press conference, as he asked New York City voters to support his campaign for mayor in spite of news reports of another sexting affair.
(17) Surely executives will hesitate to begin each sentence with bizarre jargon or a name-dropped reference to "Tony", now that they've cringed when Simon Harwood, Director of Strategic Governance, does it.
(18) People in my family cringe.” It’s too early to determine what impact Trump’s proposal will have, says Ackles, but he expects to hear more about hedge funds in the coming weeks.
(19) The shadow treasury team's response to Clegg's wealth tax proposal was an infantile ya-boo of the kind that makes voters cringe: "Nick Clegg is once again taking the British people for fools.
(20) I felt the mild elation and giggly cringe of executing a well-designed violent manoeuvre in a video game.
Grimace
Definition:
(n.) A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary aad occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face.
(v. i.) To make grimaces; to distort one's face; to make faces.
Example Sentences:
(1) When I commiserate about the overnight flight that brought them here, Linney gives a wry grimace.
(2) The authors describe two cases of tardive dyskinesia in which severe axial dystonia and intense facial grimacing produced marked discomfort as well as social and physical disability.
(3) At the time of presentation the child exhibited dilated pupils, ataxia, urinary retention, and facial grimacing.
(4) Typically, their ongoing ward behavior consisted of very low level activity, involving small peripheral limb movements, wandering or blinking eyes, mouthing or grimacing, and repetitive, reflexive types of patterns labeled "fixed action sequences."
(5) Subjects were placed alone in a room where purposeful oral activity such as eating, talking and smoking was not permitted, while activity such as pursing the lips sucking on cheeks, grimaces etc was measured by a specially designed electromyometer.
(6) Where there were pictures of powerful women, the images tended to be subversive: the same photograph of a grimacing Theresa May was used to illustrate three different stories about the home secretary, and two of the three pictures of the German chancellor showed Angela Merkel puffing out her cheeks, looking mildly absurd.
(7) This manifests itself as a bit of a grimace when a kiddie pops up in front of his gun, a tut when colleagues show a lack of concern for collateral damage. "
(8) Madrid artist Deno is oblivious to the grimacing, concentrating on needling a giant scaly fish into his chest.
(9) We are preparing to erect a tent city close to the border.” Silva Ali, 10, grimaces as she swallows the polio vaccine administered, then sticks out her tongue.
(10) Case 1 (proband): A 28-year-old man was hospitalized because of facial grimace, dysarthria, and generalized dystonia.
(11) See how much I look like Eric!” he said, grimacing.
(12) Mild or severe discomfort, in the form of straining, stretching, arching, grimacing, writhing, shaking, doubling up, eye closure and restlessness is reported in 69 cases.
(13) When I tell friends I'm going to meet him, they grimace and roll their eyes.
(14) According to official witnesses, Angel Diaz strained against the straps, grimaced and attempted to mouth words for nearly a half-hour after the start of the procedure.
(15) Yet here they stand, a reality-TV star turning it on for the camera, his unnaturally white teeth bearing a smile – or is it a grimace?
(16) After 3 and 12 months, respectively, two of the cebus monkeys developed buccolingual signs (grimacing and tongue protrusion), similar to tardive dyskinesia in the clinic.
(17) As her energetic terriers Benny and Buddy squabble, nipping and harassing half a dozen other spaniels and terriers tearing after tennis balls on the softly sloping hill that marks the Battle of Bannockburn, Gail NcNeill looks up at the greatest hero of Scottish independence and grimaces.
(18) The Queen's perma-grimace belied her true feelings.
(19) After all, she asks, before proceeding to pose for the camera with two crab-shaped balloons, grimacing and spitting sexual innuendos ("Crabbbbbbbbbbbssss!
(20) The responses consisted of an immediate withdrawal of both the affected and unaffected leg, followed by facial grimacing and crying.