winced at the movie's graphic depiction of combat injuries
Recent Examples on the WebFrom Gary Klein: Matthew Stafford placed his right foot gingerly on a step up to the podium and winced through a smile.—Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2023 Anna asks, wincing, as she’s wheeled out of her egg-extraction procedure.—Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2023 Waterson—stretching her head to the left, every muscle in her face wincing without disturbing her perfect eyeliner somehow—does not reply.—Lauren Larson, Men's Health, 25 July 2023 Harry Styles appeared to wince in pain after being hit with an object during his concert in Vienna earlier this month.—Doha Madani, NBC News, 30 July 2023 Carl Goff winces at the memory of being behind the wheel of a UPS truck at 4 p.m. in July.—Arcelia Martin, Dallas News, 24 July 2023 At the Tribeca documentary premiere, one of the biggest audience laughs was a close-up of Ozzy Osbourne watching their performance, in his tux, wincing in pain.—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2023 For over four decades, since taking over from Chuck Woolery, Sajak has been at that spot, joshing with Vanna White, heaving the wheel on final spins, wincing at Bankrupts and tethering exuberant winners.—James Poniewozik, New York Times, 13 June 2023 Some Sabres fans might wince, though, remembering the time at the Garden Lucic freight-trained his way over Ryan Miller, when the Buffalo goalie roamed to the middle of the right defensive circle to field a puck (play on the tracks, expect a train).—Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 3 June 2023 See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wince.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English wynsen to kick out, start, from Anglo-French *wincer, *guincer to shift direction, dodge, by-form of guenchir, probably of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wenken, wankōn to totter — more at wench
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