Verb

(dated) To bow or crouch in servility.

* Milton

Sly hypocrite, who more than thou / Once fawned and cringed , and servilely adored / Heaven's awful monarch?

* 1903 , ,

He heard the hateful clank of their chains; he felt them cringe and grovel, and there rose within him a protest and a prophecy.

* 1904 , ,

Leclere was bent on the coming of the day when Batard should wilt in spirit and cringe and whimper at his feet.

To shrink, tense or recoil, as in fear, disgust or embarrassment.

He cringed as the bird collided with the window.

* Bunyan

When they were come up to the place where the lions were, the boys that went before were glad to cringe behind, for they were afraid of the lions.

* 1917 , ,

But he made no whimper. Nor did he wince or cringe to the blows. He bored straight in, striving, without avoiding a blow, to beat and meet the blow with his teeth.

(obsolete) To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort.

* Shakespeare

Till like a boy you see him cringe his face, / And whine aloud for mercy.

Verb

(en-verb)

Break or violate a treaty, a law, a right etc.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}

Break in or encroach on something.