Definition of Flinch

1. Noun. A reflex response to sudden pain.

Exact synonyms: Wince
Generic synonyms: Jump, Start, Startle
Derivative terms: Wince

2. Verb. Draw back, as with fear or pain. "She flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf"
Exact synonyms: Cringe, Funk, Quail, Recoil, Shrink, Squinch, Wince
Generic synonyms: Move
Specialized synonyms: Retract, Shrink Back
Derivative terms: Wince, Wince

Definition of Flinch

1. v. i. To withdraw from any suffering or undertaking, from pain or danger; to fail in doing or perserving; to show signs of yielding or of suffering; to shrink; to wince; as, one of the parties flinched from the combat.

2. n. The act of flinching.

Definition of Flinch

1. Noun. A reflexive jerking away. ¹

2. Verb. To make a sudden, involuntary movement in response to a (usually negative) stimulus. ¹

3. Verb. To dodge (a question), to avoid an unpleasant task or duty ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Flinch

1. to shrink back involuntarily [v -ED, -ING, -ES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Flinch

flimflammery
flimflamming
flimflams
flimp
flimped
flimping
flimps
flims
flimsier
flimsies
flimsiest
flimsily
flimsiness
flimsinesses
flimsy
flinch (current term)
flinched
flincher
flinchers
flinches
flinching
flinchingly
flincht
flinchy
flinder
flindermice
flindermouse
flinders
flindosa
flindosy

Literary usage of Flinch

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words: Especially from the Dramatists by Walter William Skeat, Anthony Lawson Mayhew (1914)
"... to start aside, to flinch, shrink. Fletcher, False One, iv. 4. ... (perhaps) to flinch, give way, to ' blench' ; ' The which will not Wince' (riming ..."

2. Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern by Charles Dudley Warner, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle, George H Warner (1902)
"PIERRE OF PROVENCE AND THE BEAUTIFUL MAGUELONNE BY OLGA flinch |HE story of Pierre of Provence and the beautiful Maguelonne comes to us in a quaint little ..."

3. Pennsylvania, Province and State: A History from 1609 to 1790 by Albert Sidney Bolles (1899)
"... and they did not flinch from doing their duty. Among the suspected was Galloway, and he was too influential to be permitted to go free without revealing ..."

4. The Friends' Library: Comprising Journals, Doctrinal Treatises, & Other by William Evans, Thomas Evans (1846)
"... and had a favourable time in the prison ; the Lord helpeth me to be faithful in submitting to the cross; my nature was opposed to flinch ; but I can say ..."

5. Correspondence of the Family of Hatton: Being Chiefly Letters Addressed to by Christopher Hatton Hatton, Edward Maunde Thompson (1878)
"... but they were wheedled off of it by some few sugar words, they then beginning to flinch. I was surpris'd, I must confess, to see it come to this; ..."

6. Works of the Camden Society by Camden Society (Great Britain), Royal Historical Society (Great Britain) (1878)
"King's mandate is an inhibition; but they were wheedled off of it by some few sugar words, they then beginning to flinch. I was surpris'd, I must confess, ..."

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