flinch

«flinch» in Mova's school dictionary: to make a small, quick movement backwards or away because… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (flinch, flinches, flinched, flinching); noun (a flinch)

meaning for a pupil

1) To flinch is to make a small, quick movement backwards or away because of pain, fear or surprise. tree →

2) Not to flinch from something means to face it bravely without avoiding it. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories, a character flinches when a door slams or someone raises a hand, showing fear. In everyday life, children may flinch at an injection. In sport, a brave goalkeeper does not flinch. Phrases: «without flinching», «didn't flinch», «flinch from a task».

examples

• She flinched when the nurse gave her the injection. tree →
• He didn't flinch when the ball flew at him. tree →
• The dog flinched at the sound of fireworks. tree →
• She faced the bully without flinching. tree →
• He gave a little flinch when I touched the bruise. tree →
• The firefighter never flinched from danger. tree →
• The ogre thought to terrify his foe, but Watanabe never flinched. tree →

note

Regular verb: flinched. Noun: a flinch. Similar: wince (a face of pain), recoil.

In the corpora

• Getting hurt in front of people adds embarrassment to pain; flinching when a ball comes near is normal for a while afterwards.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «flinch» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.