Meaning of Cringe | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A gesture or posture of cringing (recoiling or shrinking).
   countable
2. An act or disposition of servile obeisance.
   countable, figuratively
3. A crick (“painful muscular cramp or spasm of some part of the body”).
   British, countable, dialectal
4. Things, particularly online content, which would cause an onlooker to cringe from secondhand embarrassment.
   derogatory, slang, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

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

“Bro... you just posted cringe”

“There was so much cringe in that episode!”

“Los Angeles-based writer K. Allado-McDowell's new novel, Amor Cringe, is a love letter to cringe maximalism.”

“Soon, there were Instagram compilation accounts dedicated to collecting the worst cringe, with a focus on cringe created by not-quite-random people who were performing, and failing, for thousands of their peers on TikTok.”

“Many young people are also reevaluating what once constituted cringe, attributing use of the term to unacknowledged bigotry more than just a rejection of sincerity. Some niche communities, such as furries, anime fans, and fetish groups, who were once mocked on social media, have since amassed cultural power that has launched them into the mainstream.”

CEFR level