Cringing [adjective]

Cringe is best understood as a cousin of camp, though cringe differs from camp in that camp can still be enjoyable on its own terms.

But when he had finished, Sivert Jespersen, with a cringing smile, said: "I think now we had better sing a hymn."

A little cringing shrivelled old man stood up in astonishment.

If the partners despised us for our cringing before them they were right; we were a despicable set.

He stopped and looked back at the people cringing in the doorways.

In those false, fascinating pages he is a consummate scoundrel, "a mere cringing courtier and a pimp."

Shall it be in the presence of the cringing minions who will mock at his calamity and laugh when his fear cometh?

The rage died out of it and the flush; and fear, and a cringing embarrassment, took the place of them.

An instant afterwards there appeared a little wizened fellow, with a cringing manner and a shambling style of walking.

After an instinctive cringing movement of homage and salutation, he bent to the young man's ear and whispered half a dozen words.