wince

See also: Wince

English

Etymology

From Middle English wyncen, from Anglo-Norman winchir (compare Old French guenchir), from Frankish *wankjan, related to *winkijan (“to flex, bend”). See also German winken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɪns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪns

Noun

wince (plural winces)

1. A sudden movement or gesture of shrinking away.
2. A reel used in dyeing, steeping, or washing cloth; a winch. It is placed over the division wall between two wince pits so as to allow the cloth to descend into either compartment at will.

Translations

gesture of shrinking away

• Bulgarian: потръпване (bg) n (potrǎpvane)
• Czech: ucuknutí n
• Dutch: samentrekking (nl) f, stuip (nl) m
• Finnish: vavahdus (fi), sävähdys (fi), kavahdus
• Galician: estremecemento (gl) m, arreguizo m, arrepío m, sobresalto (gl) m
• German: Zusammenzucken n
• Romanian: fior (ro)
• Russian: вздра́гивание (ru) n (vzdrágivanije), содрога́ние (ru) n (sodrogánije)
• Serbo-Croatian: lecnuti se
• Turkish: irkilme (tr), ürkme (tr)

Verb

(sense 1) Man winces as he receives a vaccine

wince (third-person singular simple present winces, present participle wincing, simple past and past participle winced)

2. (intransitive) To flinch as if in pain or distress.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.

   • 1935, Francis Beeding, “7/2”, in The Norwich Victims‎^[1]:

     The two Gordon setters came obediently to heel. Sir Oswald Feiling winced as he turned to go home. He had felt a warning twinge of lumbago.

3. (transitive) To wash (cloth), dip it in dye, etc., with the use of a wince.
4. To kick or flounce when unsteady or impatient.

   A horse winces.

Translations

to flinch as if in pain

• Bulgarian: трепвам (bg) (trepvam), потръпвам (bg) (potrǎpvam)
• Czech: ucuknout pf, škubnout sebou pf, zašklebit se (cs) pf, svraštit pf (obličej)
• Dutch: samenkrimpen (nl), samentrekken (nl), stuipen (nl), huiveren (nl)
• Finnish: vavahtaa (fi), kavahtaa (fi)
• French: grimacer (fr)
• German: zusammenzucken (de)
• Hungarian: összerezzen (hu), megrezzen (hu), megrándul (hu), összerándul (hu), elfintorodik (hu), felszisszen (hu)
• Maori: maopo, koemi
• Norwegian: krympe seg
• Russian: вздра́гивать (ru) impf (vzdrágivatʹ), вздро́гнуть (ru) pf (vzdrógnutʹ), содрога́ться (ru) impf (sodrogátʹsja), содрогну́ться (ru) pf (sodrognútʹsja), мо́рщиться (ru) impf (mórščitʹsja), смо́рщиться (ru) pf (smórščitʹsja) (wrinkle, pucker)
• Serbo-Croatian: lecnuti se
• Spanish: hacer muecas, estremecerse (es), muequear de dolor
• Turkish: irkilmek (tr), ürkmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: здригну́тися pf (zdryhnútysja)
• Woiwurrung: wan-noonin

to wash, dip in dye, etc., with the use of a wince

to kick or flounce

• Finnish: tempoilla, potkia (fi), tempoa

See also

• cringe

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *winkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”). Related to the verb wincian (“to wink”).

Noun

winċe f

1. winch, reel

Descendants

• English: winch

References

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “wince”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.