1617 S. Collins Epphata to F. T. ii. x. 527 This part is handled somewhat crookedly by the Adioynder, with cringings and wrenchings, now for the Puritanes, then against them.

1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. J. L. G. de Balzac Lett. 248 A Country..where all men grow crooked with extreame cringeing.

1660 J. Milton Readie Way Free Commonw. 4 Among the perpetual bowings and cringings of an abject people.

1727 A. Hamilton New Acct. E. Indies I. xiii. 156 Making some decent Cringings towards the Tomb.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Amble Tho the Amble be gain'd, it must be slow, and unsightly; because attended with a cringing in the hind Parts.

1767 T. Hutchinson Hist. Province Massachusets-Bay, 1691–1750 214 His cringing to Randolph..was a spot in his character.

1806 Emerald 19 July 134/2 Knowledge, which should insure respect, without that cringing, which obtains it.

1847 J. G. Francis Notes from Jrnl. kept in Italy & Sicily 240 The studied cringing so common in Naples is rare here.

1900 Times 25 July 11/4 Their customary mixture of cringing, whining, and insolence.

1955 M. A. Michael tr. H. Martinson Road ii. vi. 88 A world where there was so much cringing to the rich and so little real thanks or real respect for work.

2005 Daily Mail (Nexis) 3 Nov. 14 This nonsense has gone on quite long enough:..the pathetic cringing before the forces of political correctness.

1579–80 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 98 His cringeinge side necke, eies glauncinge, fisnamy smirkinge.

c1600 Return: 1st Pt. Prol., in Three Parnassus Plays (1949) 135 Saye youe, cringinge parasite?

1629 F. Lenton Young Gallants Whirligigg 13 This cringing Serpent Ile no longer smother.

1680 T. Otway Orphan i. 2 A huffing shining flat'ring cringing Coward.

1748 J. Hervey Medit. (ed. 2) II. 6 In a State of abject and cringing Dependence.

1817 W. Gifford tr. Juvenal Satires iii, in Satires Juvenal & Persius I. 101 A flattering, cringing, treacherous, artful race, Of torrent tongue, and never-blushing face.

1869 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest III. xiii. 296 He began with an exordium of almost cringing loyalty.

1917 Mother Earth Bull. Dec. 2/2 It is well for the Revolution that her people are uncultured, uneducated. That means not yet drilled into blind obedience, into automata, into cringing slaves.

1968 E. Cleaver Soul on Ice iv. i. 156 You cringing cunctator, you dared to cling to your miserable life.

2004 W. J. V. Neill Urban Planning & Cultural Identity v. 213 One defensive reference to conflict cannot quite hide the cringing embarrassment that lies behind it.