as in to flinch
to draw back in fear, pain, or disgust
winced at the movie's graphic depiction of combat injuries
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Recent Examples of wince
Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Aug. 2025
Bosch’s work could have made Sade wince.
—Michael Robbins, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
Aris Folley, The Hill, 5 Aug. 2025
Even Wernher von Braun’s fictional doppelgänger, Dr. Strangelove, might have winced at such breezy talk of thermonuclear explosions.
—Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 28 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for wince
Verb
The 66-year-old truck dispatcher based in Vancouver, Canada, trained five days a week, pushing his limits with weights that would make most gym-goers wince.
—Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Aug. 2025
Bosch’s work could have made Sade wince.
—Michael Robbins, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
Noun
But lawmakers on both sides are wincing at the thought of a full-year funding patch, particularly as the government operates under its third continuous stopgap.
—Aris Folley, The Hill, 5 Aug. 2025
Even Wernher von Braun’s fictional doppelgänger, Dr. Strangelove, might have winced at such breezy talk of thermonuclear explosions.
—Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 28 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for wince
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wince
Verb
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The last time Congress faced a deadline to extend government funding, Senate Democrats flinched, giving Republicans the votes needed to avert a government shutdown without extracting any concessions.—
Nik Popli,
Time,
4 Sep. 2025
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Share relevant proof that mirrors their situation, name your price without flinching, and close with one clear question.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
25 Aug. 2025
Noun
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In an alarming sight for an already-banged-up inside linebacker room, Greenlaw pulled up with a grimace after covering J.K. Dobbins on an LB-RB one-on-one pass-coverage drill.—
Luca Evans,
Denver Post,
31 July 2025
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In one image, Scales, who had won a Military Cross for his bravery at the front, wears a crooked grimace that suggests recent anguish.—
Ed Caesar,
New Yorker,
13 July 2025
Verb
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Current detectors use heavy atoms like xenon and argon, which should recoil if their nucleus is struck, much like colliding billiard balls.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
28 Aug. 2025
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As detailed in Tina Fey’s 2011 memoir, Bossypants, Jimmy Fallon, who was also in the show’s cast at the time, jokingly recoiled and told Poehler to stop it.—
Anna Holmes,
The Atlantic,
21 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Luckily, life is going to improve in nearly every way going forward, so proceed with a smile rather than a frown.—
Kyle Thomas,
People.com,
10 Aug. 2025
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The aim was to encode the various nuanced ways human faces transmit states of mind, and then to visualize them; smiles and frowns are the barest beginning.—
Dan Rockmore,
New Yorker,
9 Aug. 2025
Verb
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During a hospital stay, Roy’s enfeebled mother fixates on the caste and religious affiliations of the doctors treating her—the sort of thing that will be familiar to anyone who has cringed at a diminished elder’s unfiltered prejudices.—
Rebecca Mead,
New Yorker,
3 Sep. 2025
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On the other side are GOP lawmakers cringing at the departure of so many CDC officials.—
Shelby Talcott,
semafor.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Klára tries to keep him away but Berend, a sweaty, sour beast of a man who wears a permanent scowl, insistently shoves his way into the household.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
28 Aug. 2025
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Serve up in a stemmed glass, and garnish with a scowl, or perhaps a war story.—
Jeremy Repanich,
Robb Report,
11 July 2025
Noun
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And maybe, just maybe, a horseshoe-moustached, hardened rocker with a booming growl will quietly leave a grocery store tomorrow to take his mushroom mocha milk back home.—
Jason Newman,
Rolling Stone,
29 Aug. 2025
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His first task: trying to figure out the source of the bizarre, threatening low growl picked up by the comms system.—
Keith Phipps,
Vulture,
21 Aug. 2025
Noun
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In her trademark cat-eye glasses, with her bitter-lemon moue, Hoffman, as Moth, is comedy just standing there; Harada, as Mustardseed, a warmth machine.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
24 Oct. 2021
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Not just any moue, either, but a supermoue—a whole cultural attitude distilled into a single boffff.—
Anthony Lane,
The New Yorker,
13 Mar. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Wince.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wince. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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