0 present participle of cringe
1 to suddenly move away from someone or something because you are frightened
One is to appear cringing as one overdepreciates one's own worth; another more serious consequence is to risk attracting the (negative) condescension rather than the (positive) patronage of the addressee.
Even his two colleagues, who, of course, he could not see behind him—the two who came in to support him—were cringing.
Not that fighting spirit, but a cringing spirit of asking for compromise!
This pathetic group of people, who priggishly tell us all what wicked men we are for facing the realities of life, are now cringing.
She was always hectoring and they were always cringing.
Are they horrified and frightened and cringing at the threat to their competition?
It must now be cringing with embarrassment as it recalls its bogus prospectives of 1979.
I do not find anything at all "modest"or"cringing" on the part of the local authorities.
