Cringe Meaning

In our daily lives, we all have heard lots of times that someone is having a feel of "cringe" or someone is creating "cringe", but what does this word cringe mean, and how many types does cringe have? In this topic, we are going to focus on these points.

Origin of cringe

The word cringe is taken from the old English word "cringan," which means give away or bend or fall in battle. At the start, cringe was just used as the term for 'terror,' but with time it was being used in many ways and means. The cringe word was originated in the 15^th century.

Meaning of cringe

The word cringe may have the following meanings;

i) A feeling of embarrassment or uncomforting situation about something. For example,

Alex was cringed when we opened his childhood pictures on the laptop screen.
The child cringes when Mr. Johnson reads his written poem loudly in the school assembly.
His video was a cringe; that's why no one liked it.

ii) It may also refer to moving back or away from someone because of fear. For example,

A child who was facing harassment was cringing back in terror.
Radhika was cringing due to the bad effect of the accident she went through.
The dog was cringing after it came to know that the owner was standing in front of the table; it ripped the mat off.

iii) To seek support by acting in an abject way. For example,

She never cringed at anyone; even she sometimes can be bully.
He doesn't like to cringe in front of anyone.
Alice was cringing for food because of the hunger, as she was hungry for the last two days.

iv) To illustrate contraction of one's muscles unwillingly. For example,

He was cringing under the cold circumstances.
We all cringe under the exploding wind.
The cat was cringing due to heat.

v) To bend back, crawl, crouch, etc. For example,

They all cringe in front of the king to show respect.
We all cringe for the principal.

Other ways to use the word cringe

Cultural cringe: When someone feels substandard about their caste or country in comparison to another country. It is known as cultural cringe. It firstly came in the limelight in Australia by authors and then followed by other countries too.

For example,

An Australian writer, A. A Philips wrote an essay on "cultural cringe" in 1950.
The Brazilian quote "complexo de vira-lata" shows the cultural cringe.

Cringe comedy: It is a special kind of comedy genre that mainly focuses on society's awkward situations or events. Most of the time, this type of comedy artist tries to showcase some serious issues or messages funnily or sarcastically. Still, sometimes it actually creates a non-funny or awkward environment. This genre is one of the most popular and used genres of comedy. Some of the examples of cringe comedy are given below;

Parks and Recreation (2009)
^,Da Ali G Show (2021 )
Borat (2006)
The Office (2021)
Girls (2021)
The Mindy Project ( 2012)
The Inbetweeners ( 2008 )
Peep Show ( 2003 )
Nathan for You ( 2013 )
The Last Man on Earth ( 2015 )
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ( 2015 )

More about cringe

The cringe is a verb, which has three main forms - cringe, cringed, cringed, and cringing ( ing form)
Synonyms for cringe are cowering, shrink, flinch, drawback, recoil, restart, etc.
Derived forms for cringe are Cringer (noun), cringingly (adjective)

Furthermore, there are various famous names with the word cringe some of which are listed below;

The cringe: It is a popular music band of New York City. It has John Cusimano, James Rotondi, Jonny Blaze, and Shawn Pelton as group members.

Cringe pop: Cringe pop is the pop music genre created to be intentionally (or accidentally) cringing. Few songs with this genre are-