To cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear.
To experience an inward feeling of disgust, embarrassment, or fear; (by extension) to feel very embarrassed.
To bow or crouch in servility.
To act in an obsequious or servile manner.
Inducing awkwardness, embarrassment, or secondhand embarrassment; cringemaking, cringeworthy, cringy.
A gesture or posture of cringing (recoiling or shrinking).
An act or disposition of servile obeisance.
A crick (“painful muscular cramp or spasm of some part of the body”).
Awkwardness or embarrassment which causes an onlooker to cringe; cringeworthiness.
To pull back, especially in disgust, horror or astonishment.
To quickly push back when fired
A starting or falling back; a rebound; a shrinking.
The energy transmitted back to the shooter from a firearm which has fired. Recoil is a function of the weight of the weapon, the weight of the projectile, and the speed at which it leaves the muzzle.
An escapement in which, after each beat, the scape-wheel recoils slightly.
The state or condition of having recoiled.