quails

verb

present tense third-person singular of quail
1
as in flinches
to draw back in fear, pain, or disgust we quailed when the waiter unexpectedly presented us with a hindquarter of frog's legs

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in cringes
to draw back or crouch down in fearful submission brave resisters who did not quail before the tyrant's iron hand

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for quails
  1. flinches
  2. cringes
  3. recoils
  4. winces
Verb
  • Warner flinches not about a birthday that is often associated with the beginning of decline.
    — Dan Pompei, New York Times, 21 July 2026
  • Advertisement Throughout the narrative, Johnson never flinches in his portrayal of the wreck, unleashing footage of investigators approaching the car and the victims’ families.
    — Jake King-Schreifels, Time, 15 May 2026
Definition of flinches
Verb
  • Payton cringes at the mention of a sophomore slump, that defenses will figure out Nix.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 6 Aug. 2025
Definition of cringes
Verb
  • Something in the liberal heart recoils in the face of righteous ruthlessness.
    — David Brooks, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026
  • Looking through scans from his first VIBE story from back in 2012, Rocky laughs at first, then immediately recoils.
    — Jeff Ihaza, VIBE.com, 2 June 2026
Definition of recoils
Verb
  • Toxicologist Fernández has stayed in touch with his patient and still winces about how Mark feared reporting the crime to the police could reflect poorly on him professionally.
    — Mattha Busby, Rolling Stone, 19 Aug. 2026
  • Today, hardly anyone winces at its many iterations, from teeny-weeny bikini to the tankini in dots large or small.
    — Tonya Blazio-Licorish, Footwear News, 24 July 2026
Definition of winces
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

quailing
quails
quaint
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Quails.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quails. Accessed 28 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of cogent

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 28

Why do we say 'break a leg'?
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All