Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

cringe

/ˈkɹɪnd͡ʒ/ verb, noun, adjective, interjection

Forms cringes cringing cringed cringest cringedst cringeth crinch

  1. verb (intransitive) To cower, flinch, recoil, shrink, or tense, as in disgust, embarrassment, or fear. “He cringed as the bird collided with the window.”
  2. verb (intransitive, figuratively) To experience an inward feeling of disgust, embarrassment, or fear; (by extension) to feel very embarrassed.
  3. verb (intransitive) To bow or crouch in servility.
  4. verb (intransitive, figuratively) To act in an obsequious or servile manner.
  5. verb (transitive, obsolete) To draw (a body part) close to the body; also, to distort or wrinkle (the face, etc.).
  6. verb (transitive, obsolete) To bow or crouch to (someone) in servility; to escort (someone) in a cringing manner.
  7. noun (countable) A gesture or posture of cringing (recoiling or shrinking). “He glanced with a cringe at the mess on his desk.”
  8. noun (countable, figuratively) An act or disposition of servile obeisance.
  9. noun (countable, UK, dialectal) A crick (“painful muscular cramp or spasm of some part of the body”).
  10. noun (uncountable, slang, derogatory) Things, particularly online content, which would cause an onlooker to cringe from secondhand embarrassment. “Bro... you just posted cringe”
  11. adjective (slang, derogatory) Synonym of cringeworthy or uncool, inducing awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment. “Brands trying to appeal to young people with memes is the most cringe thing ever.”
  12. interjection (slang, derogatory) Stated in response to something cringeworthy.

Synonyms

cringeworthy or uncool inducing awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment flinch squinch funk shrink wince recoil quail fawn crawl creep cower grovel

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English crengen (“to bend in a haughty manner; to condescend”) [and other forms], from Old English *crenġan, *crenċġan, *crenċan (“to cause to fall or turn”) from Proto-Germanic *krangijaną (“to cause to fall; to cause to turn”), causative of Proto-Germanic *kringaną, *krinkaną (“to fall; to turn; to yield”) (> Old English crin(c)gan (“to yield; to cringe; to fall; to die, perish”)), from Proto-Indo-European *grenǵʰ- (“to turn”)). The causative suffix is from *-janą (suffix forming causatives with the sense ‘to cause to do (the action of the verb)’ from strong verbs). The English word is cognate with Danish krænge (“to turn inside out, evert”), Dutch krengen (“to careen, veer”) and Dutch kring (“circle”), Scots crenge, creenge, creinge, crienge (“to cringe; to shrug”), Swedish kränga (“to careen; to heel, lurch; to toss”), and West Frisian kringe (“to pinch; to poke; to push; to insist, urge”); and is a doublet of crinkle.
The noun and adjective are derived from the verb via zero derivation.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb 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.
  2. verb To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort. [Obs.]
  3. noun Servile civility; fawning; a shrinking or bowing, as in fear or servility. "With cringe and shrug, and bow obsequious." Cowper.

Etymology [As. crincgang, cringan, crincan, to jield, fall; akin to E. crank.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cringe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details