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Wince   Listen
verb
Wince  v. i.  (past & past part. winced; pres. part. wincing)  
1.
To shrink, as from a blow, or from pain; to flinch; to start back. "I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word."
2.
To kick or flounce when unsteady, or impatient at a rider; as, a horse winces.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wince" Quotes from Famous Books



... said Herbert, with a tear forming in his eye; "and though it may be possible that the affair hurried him to his death, there was no alternative but that he should know the whole." At this Mr. Prendergast seemed to wince as he sat in his chair. "And I am sure of this," continued Herbert, "that had he been left to the villanies of those two men, his last days would have been much less comfortable than they were, My mother feels that quite as strongly as I do." And then Mr. Prendergast looked ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope

... shrewdness in getting her money's worth. When she was there, he was using the favorite phrase "my wife" this—"my wife" that—"my wife" the other—until it so got on her nerves that she began to wait for it and to wince whenever it came—never a wait of many minutes. At first she thought he was doing this deliberately either to annoy her or in pursuance of some secret deep design. But she soon saw that he was not aware of his inability to keep off ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips

... who preceded her, paused for a moment, and looked at her with a wince in his thin features that might be taken for an indication of either pleasure or pain. He' closed the sympathetic eye, and wiped it—but this not seeming to satisfy him, he then closed both, and blew his nose with a little skeleton mealy handkerchief that lay ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton

... Indian lashed out with his quirt, which struck Ted across the shoulders, and made him wince with ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... fell on her like the lash of a whip; but as one who has been flogged into insensibility, she did not wince. That drove him on: he felt a mad desire to hear her prayers, to force her lower, to bring her to her knees. And he sought about for a keener taunt. Their attendants were almost out of sight before them; the sun, declining apace, was in ...
— Count Hannibal - A Romance of the Court of France • Stanley J. Weyman

... Jolly, "why couldn't you leave the wasp alone, eh? Why couldn't you leave it alone?" he repeated, catching Harry by the arm with a grip that made him wince. ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various

... point of leaving, and were talking very fast in undertones that made Mary Hope feel that they were talking about her. The rattle of the Lorrigan wagon hauling the piano away, the click of the horses' feet as the Devil's Tooth riders convoyed the instrument, made her wince, and want to put her palms over her ears to shut ...
— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower

... the treaty was followed by an outburst of popular indignation which made even the President wince. Remonstrances and protests poured in upon him from every part of the Union. The sailors and shipowners of Portsmouth burned Jay and Grenville in effigy, together with a miniature ship of seventy tons. In Charleston, the flags were put at half-mast and the public hangman burned copies ...
— Union and Democracy • Allen Johnson

... Jim, with a sort of brusque despairing frankness, whether he himself—straight now—didn't understand that when "it came to saving one's life in the dark, one didn't care who else went—three, thirty, three hundred people"—it was as if a demon had been whispering advice in his ear. "I made him wince," boasted Brown to me. "He very soon left off coming the righteous over me. He just stood there with nothing to say, and looking as black as thunder—not at me—on the ground." He asked Jim whether he had nothing fishy in his life to remember that he was so damnedly hard upon a man trying to ...
— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... Richard's conscience had little occasion to wince, yet he could not but feel somewhat guilty when this opportune commission was given to him, since the Earl gave it unaware of his secret understanding with the captive. He accepted it, however, without hesitation, since he was certainly not going to make a ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... wince. "I've noticed," he said, "that there's a certain kind of gossip that rarely gets about unless there's some cause for it—on the principle of no smoke without fire. If you've heard ...
— The Street Called Straight • Basil King

... Adele said from the time she was able to talk. Even if the truth would have served as well and with less trouble, she was sure to disfigure it beyond identification. And Walter's just as bad. But you, my dear, will never make a good liar; the first words we spoke together I saw your eyes wince, and knew you were tormented by something on your conscience. Moreover, the last person Edna English would send anyone with a letter of recommendation to is my niece, who has not yet been proved guilty ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance

... not wince beneath this harsh speech, he was too well inured to such; he only looked at his aunt with grave curiosity as ...
— The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn - A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot • Evelyn Everett-Green

... in a low tone, Morok had evidently pointed to Dagobert. The latter, notwithstanding his self-command, felt that the restraint he had imposed upon himself, since his arrival at this unlucky inn, and above all wince the commencement of the conversation between Morok and the burgomaster, was becoming no longer bearable; besides, he saw clearly that all his efforts to conciliate the favor of the judge were rendered completely null by the fatal influence of the brute-tamer; so, ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... came to like the operation, and as soon as it was dirty would begin crying and not leave off until I took it out and carried it to the spout, when it immediately became quiet, although it would wince a little at the first rush of the cold water and make ridiculously wry faces while the stream was running over its head. It enjoyed the wiping and rubbing dry amazingly, and when I brushed its hair seemed to be perfectly happy, lying ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace

... come in against his strong hands. On a straight flush he had drawn down the ante and nothing more. To say the least, it was exasperating. But his face had showed no anger. He had played poker too many years, was too much a sport in the thorough-going frontier fashion, to wince when the luck broke ...
— Crooked Trails and Straight • William MacLeod Raine

... Full name: Michael Raphael Gabriel. (His mother had tagged that on him at the time of his baptism, which had made his father wince in anticipated compassion, but there had been nothing for him to say—not in the middle ...
— Unwise Child • Gordon Randall Garrett

... liberty of introducing myself. We plan to run a story, featuring the dangers of masquerading in society, and of course it hinges on the death of Mr. Turnbull. I'm sorry"—he apologized as he saw Barbara wince. "I realize the topic is one to make you feel badly; but I promise to ask only few questions." His smile was very engaging and ...
— The Red Seal • Natalie Sumner Lincoln

... and naked. Thackeray has ridiculed the idea of a man with a long rent-roll, and a comfortable cushioned pew, believing himself to be a miserable sinner; but, he must have been obtuse indeed who would not wince under this rough and bizarre, but terribly earnest and fervid preacher. For a long period he gave a series of evening lectures which were crowded to suffocation, and as the fame of him went abroad ...
— Western Worthies - A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West - of Scotland Celebrities • J. Stephen Jeans

... you be so boist'rous rough? I will not struggle, I will stand stone-still. For heaven sake, Hubert, let me not be bound! Nay, hear me, Hubert! drive these men away, And I will sit as quiet as a lamb; I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word, Nor look upon the iron angerly: Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you, Whatever torment you do ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... than you have ever had, and probably a great deal more than you expect, even with this word of warning. If you have failed to provide yourself with proper shoes and socks, great will be the price of your lack of forethought. You will wince at your own blisters. You will get no sympathy from any one else. It is the spirit of the camp for each man to bear his own burdens. So arrive at camp with hardened legs and broken in shoes. Don't buy shoes with pointed or narrow toes. ...
— The Plattsburg Manual - A Handbook for Military Training • O.O. Ellis and E.B. Garey

... in his eye, "I cook over the best brand of oil-stove that money can buy," he told her, relentlessly, watching her wince from the sordid image. "I have all the conveniences I can think of. All I'm trying to do is to get myself fed with the least expenditure of gray matter and time on my part, and as things are now arranged in this particular corner of the country I find I can do ...
— The Squirrel-Cage • Dorothy Canfield

... take an oath I keep it, mark you! It is men women suffer for; that was what your scholar meant—for such fine gentlemen as the one you have just watched while he rode away. More fools they! No man shall make me womanly in such a fashion, I promise you! Let them wince and kneel; ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... at Lucas, yet I think she saw him wince under her stab. The Duke of Mayenne was right; not even Mlle. de Montluc loved ...
— Helmet of Navarre • Bertha Runkle

... lack, my dear friends? Is it possibly courage? Well, Rabelais is, of all writers, the one best able to give us that courage. If only we had courage, how the great tides of existence might sweep us along—and we not whine or wince ...
— Visions and Revisions - A Book of Literary Devotions • John Cowper Powys

... happy (with a half-frown and a wince) to play Panurge to your lordship's Pantagruel, on board ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al

... stared in. He did not dine there. It was, for one thing, a matter of bitterness to see sitting at the cashier's high desk, the little Marie, grown somewhat with flesh, it is true, but still lovely in his eyes. It made Herman wince, even now, to see through the window that her husband patted her hand as he brought ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... possible means of paying. All this and more, she tearfully explained to Neil, who listened to her with a great sinking at his heart and a feeling that he had plunged into something dreadful, from which he could not escape. There was manliness enough in his nature to make him wince a little, when he heard what Grey had done, while at the same time he was conscious of a pang of jealousy as he reflected that only a stronger sentiment than mere friendship for Bessie could have actuated Grey, generous and noble as he knew ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes

... I, Priscilla, and I'll help thee in any way thou 'lt say," suggested John Alden a little presuming upon his recent acceptance, and for his pains receiving a snub that made him wince again, ...
— Standish of Standish - A story of the Pilgrims • Jane G. Austin

... I should be sorry to induce you to run any risk; and if, on cool consideration, you think that risk is incurred, I strongly advise you to avoid all occasion of seeing the poor marchesa. Ah, you wince; but I say it for her sake as well as your own. First, you must be aware, that, unless you have serious thoughts of marriage, your attentions can but add to the very rumours that, equally groundless, you so feelingly resent; ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Senator. "In the States we haven't got into the way yet of using dinner clarets." It was as good as a play to see the rector wince under the ignominious word. "Your great statesman added much to your national comfort when he took the duty off the lighter kinds of ...
— The American Senator • Anthony Trollope

... heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound. Nay, hear me, Hubert: drive these men away, And I will sit as quiet as a lamb; I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word." ...
— The Man Shakespeare • Frank Harris

... Army is going to win again." That "again" caused Dave Darrin to wince. "We win almost every time, ...
— Dave Darrin's Fourth Year at Annapolis • H. Irving Hancock

... boys shook hands with the three, and the grip that they received from the horny palms made them wince with pain. ...
— Adrift in the Wilds - or, The Adventures of Two Shipwrecked Boys • Edward S. Ellis

... therapist could imagine himself trying to get under one of Stanton's lightning-like returns. The thought of what would happen to his hand if he were accidentally to catch one made him wince. ...
— Anything You Can Do ... • Gordon Randall Garrett

... "and you may cut it off at the wrist if you like—I won't even wince. I have no further use for it, I believe!" Howard folded it to his heart, and felt the little pulse beat in the slender wrist; and presently the sun went down, a ball of fire into the ...
— Watersprings • Arthur Christopher Benson

... menagerie, I'd offer you five 'undred a year to represent a Tasmanian devil. But look 'ere, now, I've no time to waste with you; I come 'ere to give you a bit of my mind. You're a fire-raiser, you are. Ah! you may well wince an' grow w'ite. You'd grow w'iter still, with a rope round your neck, if you wos left to my tender mercies, you w'ite livered villain! for I knows you; I've watched you; I've found you hout; an' I've only got to 'old up my little finger to ...
— Life in the Red Brigade - London Fire Brigade • R.M. Ballantyne

... upon their making up their differences, and a sort of reconciliation took place-Scapin promising never to allude to the subject again, but managing to give poor Leander one or two more digs that made him wince even as ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... General Markow, Brigadier, Insisting on removal of the prince Amidst some groaning thousands dying near,— All common fellows, who might writhe and wince, And shriek for water into a deaf ear,— The General Markow, who could thus evince His sympathy for rank, by the same token, To teach him greater, had his ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... He laughed—a laugh that caused the righteous Crimmins to wince. The latter carefully wiped his eyes with a handkerchief that had once ...
— Garrison's Finish - A Romance of the Race-Course • W. B. M. Ferguson

... dousing, and scrubbing, and rubbing down seemed more fierce than ever. If Matilda ever ventured to say "Oh don't!"—Mrs. Candy was sure to give her more of what she did not like. She had learned to keep her tongue still between her teeth. She had learned to wince and be quiet. But this morning she could hardly be quiet. "Can I help hating Aunt Candy?" she thought to herself as she went down-stairs. Then she found Maria full of work for which she wanted more fingers than her own; and ...
— Opportunities • Susan Warner

... tinware and steel put an unpleasant emphasis to the question. It was so close to his head that it made him wince, and now—with a wide area within reach about him—he began scraping up the sand for an added protection. There came a long silence after that third clatter of distress from his cooking utensils. To David Carrigan, even ...
— The Flaming Forest • James Oliver Curwood

... himself:" [803]"if he be guilty and deserve it, let him amend, whoever he is, and not be angry." "He that hateth correction is a fool," Prov. xii. 1. If he be not guilty, it concerns him not; it is not my freeness of speech, but a guilty conscience, a galled back of his own that makes him wince. ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

... back at once, without hesitation, contest, or expostulation—proceed with even exaggerated care to smoothe every difficulty, to reduce it to the level of their understandings, return it to them thus modified, and lay on the lash of sarcasm with unsparing hand. They would feel the sting, perhaps wince a little under it; but they bore no malice against this sort of attack, provided the sneer was not sour, but hearty, and that it held well up to them, in a clear, light, and bold type, so that she who ran might read, their incapacity, ignorance, ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... aloud, and was surprised that his voice was audible. As a matter of fact, it was too audible; the noise made him wince slightly. He shifted his position ...
— Out Like a Light • Gordon Randall Garrett

... cadavers but let us refrain from congratulating each other too courteously on the fact); to the prim ones who find their secret obscenities mirrored in every careless phrase, who read self accusation into the word sex; to the prim ones who wince adroitly in the hope of being mistaken for imbeciles; to the prim ones who fornicate apologetically (the Devil can-cans in their souls); to the cowardly ones who borrow their courage from Ideals which they forthwith defend with ...
— Fantazius Mallare - A Mysterious Oath • Ben Hecht

... almost in an hysterical tone, for his nerves were not yet under control, and the crude speeches of the girl made him wince. ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume

... it she looked him in the face with a curiosity most cruel to herself; but Georges did not wince, and replied simply: ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... wince, did, for G. W. Creamer and the Eureka Paper Mills were his most successful competitors in the manufacture of special-priced high-grade papers. Mr. Cuthbert ...
— The Early Bird - A Business Man's Love Story • George Randolph Chester

... to.—Fighting, and even courage, is mechanical; a man may be taught it as readily as any other science; and I would pit the little timid hermit of St. Onofre to a march, on the margin of the precipices on this mountain, against the bravest general we have in America. The man that would not wince at the whistle of a cannon-ball over his head, may find his blood retire, and his senses bewildered, at a dreadful precipice under his feet. St. Onofre possesses no more space than what is covered in by the tiling, nor any prospect but to the South. The inhabitant of it says, ...
— A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, 1777 - Volume 1 (of 2) • Philip Thicknesse

... said—so often that Lanyard would almost wince from that formula of introduction—"a promising lad, though it's sad I should be to say it, instead of proud as I am. For I've made you: but for me you'd long since have matriculated at La Tour Pointue and graduated with the canaille of the ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance

... up in Berselius; he had developed an affection for this man almost brotherly, and Schaunard's remark hit him and made him wince. For Schaunard employed ...
— The Pools of Silence • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... proceeded and Stephen did not move—did not wince. When Mrs. Halliday, whose mate was exacting, exclaimed, "The greatest apostle of expediency was St. Paul. He preached 'wives love your husbands,'" he even permitted himself the ghost of a smile. At one point ...
— The Path of a Star • Mrs. Everard Cotes (AKA Sara Jeannette Duncan)

... It made no difference to him whether Mr. McLean was rich or poor. That matter was one he could settle to suit himself. It was a comfort to know she "had given her heart to a steadfast, loyal, and honest man." And so, having stirred up his son-in-law and made him wince to his heart's content, the old statesman bade him stand no longer in the way, but tell the young gentleman that he, too, would be glad to know him; and this letter, that evening, "old Chesterfield" placed in his daughter's hand and then magnanimously gave her his blessing. It was not to be shown ...
— 'Laramie;' - or, The Queen of Bedlam. • Charles King

... him to a "music" hall to hear The Great Recruiting Song, and watched him wince And writhe throughout, as though his end were near; But now I learn that, every evening since, Brown has been there, in England's sacred cause, To greet that ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 18, 1914 • Various

... for as he got tipsy I could see him wince, and when an old yeoman, with a big red head, made light by the whiskey, fell over our friend, he ...
— Marguerite Verne • Agatha Armour

... be still up. Call to the hospital to see. Hope she's over. Long day I've had. Martha, the bath, funeral, house of Keyes, museum with those goddesses, Dedalus' song. Then that bawler in Barney Kiernan's. Got my own back there. Drunken ranters what I said about his God made him wince. Mistake to hit back. Or? No. Ought to go home and laugh at themselves. Always want to be swilling in company. Afraid to be alone like a child of two. Suppose he hit me. Look at it other way round. Not so bad then. Perhaps ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... aiding and abetting a criminal in an evasion of the law, Mr. Graeme?" chirped Miss Penny one time, and took Margaret's energetic below-table expostulation without a wince. ...
— Pearl of Pearl Island • John Oxenham

... to see Markham wince as from an unseen blow. Then Markham walked back to his own room. His tread would have broken ice capable of ...
— Bunker Bean • Harry Leon Wilson

... sorry. I didn't mean to blaze out. Do forgive me like a good fellow. It's an old sore of mine and sometimes it makes me wince. It did just now. ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... easy matter to convince Heinrich that it was finished. Hard to say That though they could not meet (he saw her wince) She still must keep the locket to allay Suspicion in her husband. She would pay Him from her savings bit by bit—the oath He swore at that was startling ...
— Men, Women and Ghosts • Amy Lowell

... untrue and impossible as many of them were, made him wince, not knowing indeed how cunning was the invention behind them; and many times when she was more maddening than usual, Herrick schooled himself to patience by reminding himself of the drastic punishments which had apparently been meted out ...
— The Making of a Soul • Kathlyn Rhodes

... caught and held it in a grip that almost made her wince. "Stella," he said, "it's been a very short honeymoon, but I'm afraid it's over. I've got to get back ...
— The Lamp in the Desert • Ethel M. Dell

... repeatedly said, during the last day or two, that he will not be mixed up in the scandal that would be the result of your breaking this off. He would go abroad, and I should have to go with him. Ah, you wince at the thought of that!—Think of all your friends, too. It is a serious matter to have been set on such an eminence as you were at your betrothal party. It is like being lifted up high on a platform that others are carrying on ...
— Three Comedies • Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson

... notions, did their utmost to damp the enthusiasm of the meetings, seem to have any such effect. Once in an oculist's consulting clinic in Tokyo I was struck by the fact that when water was squirted into the eyes of a succession of patients of both sexes and various ages, they did not wince as Western people would ...
— The Foundations of Japan • J.W. Robertson Scott

... snapping the bone. Thus stamping and wriggling for a few seconds, the two fought on for vengeance and for life, while George Rennie, Hans, and the two Mullers ran to the rescue and fired a volley. This caused the animal to wince and look up. Jerry, taking advantage of the pause, jumped up and dived out from below her between her hind-legs—alighting on his head and turning a complete somersault. He regained his feet just as she turned round again to seize him. At that critical ...
— The Settler and the Savage • R.M. Ballantyne

... anything happened outside her experience she sat quiet and let it happen, reserving criticism. But, chancing to look up, she had seen the boy wince at the word. ...
— True Tilda • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... never expected to find herself tied by her affections to a man with whom she disagreed, and who went contrary to her standards, very much as if she was lashed on the back of a very nice elephant that would wince to but not obey ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells

... kittenish young creature all the more because her repartee was often a little cutting. If she had always struck him with a velvet paw, the thing would have grown monotonous, but he occasionally got a scratch that made him wince, cool and brazen as he was. But, after all, he daily saw that he was gaining power over her, and the manner in which the frank-hearted girl took his arm and leaned upon it spoke volumes to the experienced man. While he habitually wore a mask, Zell could conceal ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe

... she who made the practical suggestion, hit the nail of expediency on the head. No sentimental scruple made the blow waver or deflected her resolute aim. She had thought at once of Laura, and Laura was his only, his inevitable, resource. His anxious mind pictured his sister's wonder, and made him wince under the sting of Henley Fairford's irony: Fairford, who at the time of the marriage had sat silent and pulled his moustache while every one else argued and objected, yet under whose silence Ralph had felt a deeper protest than under all the reasoning of the others. ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton

... aghast. Formerly, I used not to mind rough words; but I think Roger must have spoilt me; they make me wince now. ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton

... pies at which you annually wince, Hearing the tale how happy months will follow Proportioned to the total mass of mince ...
— Modern British Poetry • Various

... and followed Narcissus through the porch. Dorothea saw the old General wince. She slipped an arm through Mercury's bridle-rein and picked up her skirt; the other arm she laid in ...
— The Westcotes • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... eyes. "One can't get too much of a good thing, you know." Jefferson then read to Franklin the Declaration of Independence, which has been pronounced one of the world's greatest papers. "That's good, Thomas! That's right to the point! That will make King George wince. I wish I had done it myself." It is said Franklin would "have put a joke into the Declaration of Independence, if it had fallen to his lot to write that ...
— Boy Scouts Handbook - The First Edition, 1911 • Boy Scouts of America

... an absolute silence, he gave no sign of suffering and uttered no single word either of surprise or bitterness. He seemed to some of us in those days almost wanting in sensibility, almost inhuman in his serenity. Newspaper articles which made most of us either wince or explode with anger did nothing more to the subject of their vilification than to set him off laughing—a comfortable, soft-sounding, and enjoying laughter which brought a light into his face and gently shook his considerable shoulders. He loved to produce at those moments the encomiums pronounced ...
— The Mirrors of Downing Street - Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster • Harold Begbie

... brightness. The Captain stood erect, awaiting his opportunity; but, alas!—it was one that never came; for the ventriloquist, that caused the rupture between Mr. Potts and the "Spooney," made the "Lion" wince, by observing, "he hoped there would be no cruelty to animals"—a remark that made our "Lion" roar contemptuously, and call the company "bears and monkeys"—he growling, with blood-thirsty pugnacity, about "satisfaction" and "Chalk Farm,"—the ...
— Christmas Comes but Once A Year - Showing What Mr. Brown Did, Thought, and Intended to Do, - during that Festive Season. • Luke Limner

... a squaw-man?" Gregg indicated the disappearing figure of Jean. His voice was sharp with hurt amazement, indignation, and the grasp of his hand on the Chief's arm made that gentleman wince. ...
— Where the Sun Swings North • Barrett Willoughby

... if not a King of Rome, a federation of small States ruled by princes of his own blood. The public rejoicings at Florence, Parma, Modena, and Bologna, and the ardent expression of the populace at such centres for union with Sardinia, made the Emperor wince, and showed him that it was impossible, even with French bayonets, to crush the aspirations of a nation. Napoleon met Francis Joseph at Villafranca, and the preliminaries of peace were arranged on July 11 in a high-handed fashion, and without even the presence ...
— Lord John Russell • Stuart J. Reid

... suffer more sorely, he did not wince more tenderly under the lash of his own terrors, than Flavia suffered; than she winced, seeing him thus, seeing at last her idol as he was—the braggadocio stripped from him, and the poor, cringing creature displayed. If her pride of race—and the fabled Wicklow kings, of whom she came, were ...
— The Wild Geese • Stanley John Weyman

... her at last as a living child. What long moral conversations took place between Juliet and her mother, what admirable remarks did that excellent mother make, referring to sundry small sins of omission and commission on Juliet's part! When I saw Flurry wince and turn red I knew the remarks ...
— Esther - A Book for Girls • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... are younger than they used to be, and all the old are grown young. Nothing is talked of but entertainments of gallantry by land and water, and we insensibly begin to taste all the joys of arbitrary power. Politics are no more; nobody pretends to wince or kick under their burdens; but we go on cheerfully with our bells at our ears, ornamented with ribands, and highly contented with our present condition; so much for the general state of the nation," she made her comment on polite circles. "We are much ...
— Lady Mary Wortley Montague - Her Life and Letters (1689-1762) • Lewis Melville

... so perfectly with M. Fortunat's presentiments that he did not even wince, but calmly asked: "Will Casimir ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... a success with the ladies," he exclaimed, as he drew out a neatly ironed handkerchief and shook it free from its folds, "and no wonder—no wonder! We'll be having an epidemic of heart trouble next." Then, as he saw the doctor wince beneath his jest, his kindly heart reproached him, and he gravely turned to politics and ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow

... answered nothing, but shook hands with them both, and bade them good-night. Weir could not speak a word; he could hardly even lift his eyes. But a red spot glowed on each of his pale cheeks, making him look very like his daughter Catherine, and I could see Miss Oldcastle wince and grow red too with the gripe he gave her hand. But she smiled again none ...
— Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood • George MacDonald

... short. Long-Hair, who was close behind him, took hold of his shoulder and led him back to the starting place. The big Indian's arm must have given him pain when he thus used it, but he did not wince. "Fool—kill dead!" he repeated two or three times, holding his tomahawk on high with threatening motions and frequent repetitions of his one echo from the profanity of civilization. He was beginning to draw his mouth down at ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson

... it was, looked across at Ruth and said laughingly, "That hits him hard, my dear, but he ought not to wince." ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 26, August, 1880 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various

... home for lunch then!" Her voice was cold, sharp, like a steel knife dipped in lemon juice. There was a bit of a curl on the tip of it that made one wince as it went through the soul. Little Mrs. Carter flushed painfully under her sensitive skin, up to the roots of her light hair. She had been pretty in her girlhood, and Mark had her coloring in ...
— The City of Fire • Grace Livingston Hill

... ask him," she suggested suddenly. "Peter has a wonderful way of getting the truth out of people! Poor Cherry, the very mention of his name makes her wince," Alix thought, watching her sister sorrowfully. "If Martin can convince Peter that it is not true, then that makes all the difference in the world," she added, aloud. "Then you tell Martin frankly that you have the old house ready to live in, and ...
— Sisters • Kathleen Norris

... his feet. He did not say anything, but the grip in his thick, stubby fingers almost made Jack MacRae wince,—and he was a strong-handed ...
— Poor Man's Rock • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... usual instrument of torture in West-country schools made the old gentleman wince; especially when they were followed ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley

... companions trudged on side by side to the south gate of Gloucester. There the pressure of a crowd brought them to a halt for a few minutes. There was a noise of yelling and booing, and some exclamations that caused the sailor's companion to wince. ...
— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan

... Gigi and the Hunchback,—that was the most exciting of all. And how near they came to losing the bag of silver which they had earned by selling their vegetables at the market! Giuseppe asked Gigi many questions, not unkindly, but with a bluntness that made the boy wince. And often Mother Margherita spoke up for him, with a kind answer. Gigi grew paler and paler, and his food lay almost untouched on his plate. He was ...
— John of the Woods • Abbie Farwell Brown

... making smart acquaintances and getting into the monde chic, especially when it was foredoomed to failure and exposure? They showed so what they were after; that was what made the people they wanted not want them. And never a wince for dignity, never a throb of shame at looking each other in the face, never any independence or resentment or disgust. If his father or his brother would only knock some one down once or twice a year! Clever as they were they never guessed the impression they made. They were good- ...
— The Pupil • Henry James

... to him it seemed / ere Siegfried tamed her mood. She grasped his hand so tightly / that 'neath the nails the blood Oozed from the pressure, / which made the hero wince. Yet the stately maiden / subdued he ...
— The Nibelungenlied - Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original • trans. by George Henry Needler

... Her words made me wince, and I must have shown the wound, for when I looked at her her countenance wore an expression of regret and repentance. "You must forgive me," she declared. "If we were to be thrown together you would have to forgive me ...
— A Little Union Scout • Joel Chandler Harris

... moments of quiet to inquire into its power of perceiving sounds. The banging of hard bodies, the ring of metallic objects, the grating of a file upon a saw are tried in vain. The animal remains impassive. Not a wince, not a movement of the skin; no sign of awakened attention. I succeed no better when I scratch the wood close by with a hard point, to imitate the sound of some neighbouring larva gnawing the intervening thickness. The indifference to my noisy tricks could be no greater ...
— The Wonders of Instinct • J. H. Fabre

... characteristic of Crauford's nature, irresistibly broke out), "but that you, of all men, should suffer so,—you, proud, susceptible, virtuous beyond human virtue,—you, whose fibres are as acute as the naked eye,—that you should bear this and wince not!" ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... been prepared for the question and did not wince nor show the slightest embarrassment. He smiled calmly as ...
— Sant' Ilario • F. Marion Crawford

... thoroughly, but he didn't use his youthful hypnotic periods of persuasive eloquence that had been wont to sway juries and to creep into campaign speeches. His wits had been sharpened in the last few months, and his keen-edged thrusts, hurled rapier-like, brought a wince to even the most hardened of veteran members. It was a complete enlightenment in plain words to a plain people—a concise ...
— David Dunne - A Romance of the Middle West • Belle Kanaris Maniates

... of view, though it's lucky that I should have been present with these dark warriors of mine when you were taken. They suffered heavily in the battle by Andiatarocte, and but for me they might now be using you as fuel. Don't wince, you know their ways and I only tell a fact. In truth, I can't make you any promise in regard to your ultimate fate, but, at present, I need you alive more than ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler

... cried Saint Simon quickly, and Leoni smiled sardonically, making his companion wince at the peculiar look in ...
— The King's Esquires - The Jewel of France • George Manville Fenn

... that I have no hope of the States doing justice in this dishonest respect, and therefore do not expect to overtake these fellows, but we may cry "Stop thief!" nevertheless, especially as they wince ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 1 (of 3), 1833-1856 • Charles Dickens

... a small, and, in itself, an unimportant Kingdom with Mediterranean sea-front, called Galavia," said Blanco. Benton's start was slight, and his features if they gave a telltale wince at the word became instantly casual again in expression. But his interest was no longer forced by courtesy. It hung from that moment fixed on ...
— The Lighted Match • Charles Neville Buck

... occupation, and clapping her hands, with the result that she stuck her needle into her finger with such violence that it brought the tears to her eyes and made her wince. ...
— The Adventurous Seven - Their Hazardous Undertaking • Bessie Marchant

... wince. But her eyes filled and her voice was husky as she spoke: "Tom, I want your soul again—the one that used to speak to me in the old days." She bent over him, and rubbed her cheek against his and there she left him, still looking into ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White

... his wife and children, at meals—clumsy sarcasms which my lady turned many a time, or which, sometimes, she affected not to hear, or which now and again would hit their mark and make the poor victim wince (as you could see by her flushing face and eyes filling with tears), or which again worked her up to anger and retort, when, in answer to one of these heavy bolts, she would flash back with a quivering reply. The pair were not happy; nor indeed was it happy to be with ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray

... Jack with a whack on the back that made Ted wince. "Let's beat it quick for the recruiting station. ...
— The Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet • James R. Driscoll

... teeth and wincing with pain, Brennan said, "Stop it! Even the word 'sch-(wince)-ool' hurts like—" He thought for a moment and then went on with his voice rising to a pitiful howl of agony at the end: "Even the name 'Miss Adams' gives me a fleeting headache all over my body, ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith

... thought she could honestly lay claim to, Mary Virginia turned her back upon the home that had sheltered her all her life, but that wouldn't be able to shelter its own people much longer, because Inglesby was going to take it away from them. It made her wince to think of him as master under that roof. The old house deserved ...
— Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man • Marie Conway Oemler

... almost malicious desire on Hagar's part to play upon this man—this scoundrel, as he believed him to be—and make him wince still more. A score of things to say or do flashed through his mind, but he gave them up instantly, remembering that it was his duty to consider Mrs. Detlor before all. But he did say, "If you were old friends, you will wish to meet her, ...
— An Unpardonable Liar • Gilbert Parker

... replied the informant; "but when he took the boy away he was a middle-aged man. About his age," she added, pointing to the editor in a fashion which made that worthy man wince and the proprietor desire to laugh unconsumedly; "and not so very unlike him neither, being one as had no hair ...
— The Middle Temple Murder • J.S. Fletcher

... greeted him with dropped jaws and wide staring eyes, which puzzled Casey until the foreman, grasping his shoulder—which made Casey wince and break a promise—explained their astonishment. They had, as Casey expected, seen his lights when he came off the summit from Yucca Pass. By the speed they traveled, Lucky Lode knew that ...
— Casey Ryan • B. M. Bower

... large bamboo stick. As soon as these preliminaries were over the Kalubi called upon Komba, whom he addressed in formal language as "You-who-have-passed-the-god," and "You-the-Kalubi-to-be" (I thought I saw him wince as he said these words), to give an account of his mission and of how it came about that they had the honour of seeing the ...
— Allan and the Holy Flower • H. Rider Haggard

... cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man; but the dwelling-place of the wicked shall come to naught." This is savage cruelty, pouring nitric-acid into sword-gashes. Nothing moves your plain man; for he delights in making people wince. He is not angry, but natural, and his naturalness is something worse than the choleric man's anger. He is saying: "Ah, Job, see now—comfort, comfort? Why the house of the wicked shall come to naught." And has not Job's house been splintered by the tempest? And this friend of ...
— A Hero and Some Other Folks • William A. Quayle

... fellow! and so sensitive, too! The wound is not healed, then. Pray introduce me to the Zerlina in our little opera. As I know you so well, I can give her some excellent counsel about managing you.—Ah, you wince! I am indiscreet, I fear; I have betrayed a secret; the Zerlina is perhaps still in her rustic seclusion, and this is only—Well, you must submit to your destiny, I suppose. How many are there since? Let me see,—six weeks,—time for three flirtations of the most ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various

... saw that his shirt sleeve was stained red. Several of the weaker scouts uttered low exclamations of concern, not being accustomed to such sights; but the stouter hearted veterans had seen too many cuts to wince now. ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren

... a botanist would, I suppose, incline to something as they say, "scientific." You wince under that most offensive epithet—and I am able to give you my intelligent sympathy—though "pseudo-scientific" and "quasi-scientific" are worse by far for the skin. You would begin to talk of scientific languages, of Esperanto, La Langue Bleue, New Latin, ...
— A Modern Utopia • H. G. Wells

... to go among them. And you're not as good at the game as I am. Not——" He paused as if undecided how much would be best to tell Steve. He evidently decided that generalities would be the wisest arguments, so he continued: "Don't wince—it's the truth, and there must be no secrets between us from now on. Besides, you're in love and you can't concentrate absolutely. My best advice to you is to stay home ...
— The Gorgeous Girl • Nalbro Bartley

... gloss by the price of any book. No man — no human, masculine, natural man — ever sells a book. Men have been known in moments of thoughtlessness, or compelled by temporary necessity, to rob, to equivocate, to do murder, to commit what they should not, to "wince and relent and refrain'' from what they should: these things, howbeit regrettable, are common to humanity, and may happen to any of us. But amateur bookselling is foul and unnatural; and it is noteworthy that our language, so capable of particularity, ...
— Pagan Papers • Kenneth Grahame

... Louisa did not wince under this reproach as she might have been expected to do, nor was there any perceptible amelioration in the heavy frown with which she continued to regard him. But her words, uttered after some consideration, came in a tone of voice which revealed a desire ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... to lose time. "I am particularly sorry not to see Lady Torrens," she said, "because I really wanted to have a serious talk with her.... Yes, about the boy and girl—your boy and my girl." A curious consciousness almost made her wince. Think how easily either of the young lovers might have been a joint possession! If one, then both, surely, minus their identities and the status quo? It was like sudden unexpected lemon in ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan

... burst of enthusiasm, fired four or five parting shots from his pistol. As the reports crashed through the heavy air, you should have seen the crowd vanish down the hole! The sight made me wince, for they must have gone down like a cataract, all heaped together. But they were tough, and I trust no heads were broken. The effect on the eight fellows on the sleds came near being disastrous. I expected ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss

... his nose. Then he names a price that the hide might fetch, under favorable circumstances, in Boston—Jethro does not wince. ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... opened wide. Free as she was accustomed to be in her own utterances, this flow of bitter speech delivered with seer-like intensity was a new experience to her. She did not know whether to be angry or amused by the indictment, which caused her to wince notwithstanding that she deemed it slander. Moreover the insinuation that she had ...
— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant

... glisteningly, Like to a golden mirror in the sun; Next answer'd: "Conscience, dimm'd or by its own Or other's shame, will feel thy saying sharp. Thou, notwithstanding, all deceit remov'd, See the whole vision be made manifest. And let them wince who have their withers wrung. What though, when tasted first, thy voice shall prove Unwelcome, on digestion it will turn To vital nourishment. The cry thou raisest, Shall, as the wind doth, smite the proudest summits; Which is of honour no light argument, For this there only have been shown to ...
— The Divine Comedy • Dante

... Red Springs was certainly the last thing in the world for him to consider seriously. His last interview within its walls could still make him wince when he recalled it, word by scalding word. No, there was no place for a Rennie—and a Rebel Rennie to make matters blacker—under the ...
— Ride Proud, Rebel! • Andre Alice Norton

... Hester and Theo! Why, do you think a woman is not woman till she is forty, Maria?" (The arm under Harry's here gave a wince perhaps,—ever so slight a wince.) "I can tell you Miss Hester by no means considers herself a child, and Miss Theo is older than her sister. They know ever so many languages. They have read books—oh! piles and piles of books! They play on the harpsichord and sing together admirable; and ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... to the curls made "Al-f-u-r-d" wince. He had long felt that those curls were the one great impediment in his life—the one something that made him the butt of the jokes and gibes of other boys. He hated those curls. His first swimming experience doubly ...
— Watch Yourself Go By • Al. G. Field

... we had a bad-tempered old teacher. He was a crabbed old fellow, and all the boys got to hate him. Always using the rod, he was. Karl said to me one day as we were going home from school: 'The crooked old sinner! I'll make him wince with some verses before long, Hans,' and then we both laughed till we ...
— The Marx He Knew • John Spargo

... use discretion about his patrons. The rabble, of course——" He broke off with a wave of his hand which, although not pointedly, seemed to indicate Cousin Egbert, who once more wore the hunted look about his eyes and who sat by uneasily. I saw him wince. ...
— Ruggles of Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... Silence was good for both of them, she thought. When one has lived through a great pain, and by God's grace has conquered, it is better to bury the dead past. Elizabeth's passionate incredulity, the difficulty she felt in understanding her sister's motives, her exaggerated praise, made Dinah wince in positive pain. How could human love misjudge her so! Did not even her nearest and dearest—her own sister-friend—know how often she had striven and failed and fainted under that hard cross that ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... We wince under little pains, but Nature in us, through the excitement attendant upon them, seems to brace us to endure with fortitude greater agonies. A curious circumstance, that will serve as an illustration of this, is told by an eminent surgeon ...
— The Atlantic Monthly , Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858 • Various

... women do wince when a man really verges on his true conclusions concerning love in the abstract, however satisfactory his love in the concrete may be to them. "I am sure they love ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford

... the service went on. They both spoke so clearly, everybody could hear them, and the ring was ready, and there was not a mistake anywhere; only both Jerry and the colonel were on the point of breaking down, both of them, and every time the colonel blew his nose I could see Jerry start and wince. And so they were married, and the music broke out again, and Roger put back the veil and kissed his wife; and—and then they came back down the aisle, and—and—and ...
— Peggy • Laura E. Richards

... have to adopt made him wince, for he knew the platitudes they entailed; and in preference he thought of the paradoxes with which he would stupefy the House, the daring and originality he would show in introducing subjects that, till then, no one had dared to touch upon. ...
— Mike Fletcher - A Novel • George (George Augustus) Moore

... to wince under these words, but, as if anxious to exculpate himself, he replied, "An officer has no option in carrying out the instructions received from ...
— Neville Trueman the Pioneer Preacher • William Henry Withrow

... his eyes and wanted unspeakably to tuck him back into bed, lower the shades, and prepare him a vile mixture good for exactly everything that did not ail him. But Sara could be wise even with her son. So instead she flung up the shade, letting him wince at the clatter, dragged off the bedclothes into a tremendous heap on the chair, beat up the pillows, and turned the mattress ...
— The Vertical City • Fannie Hurst

... had emptied its contents into the high, dingy-looking carriages of the Paris-Lyons Express. A gong clanged. Honor put out an ungloved hand and had some ado not to wince before it ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... Coat," said the Onondaga gravely, "you must learn to endure. Among us a warrior will purposely put the fire to his hand or his breast and hold it there until the flesh smokes. Nor will he utter a groan or even wince. And all his people will applaud him and ...
— The Lords of the Wild - A Story of the Old New York Border • Joseph A. Altsheler

... all the friends that Jess and Hendry had, T'nowhead was the ablest to help, and the sweetest memory I have of the farmer and his wife is the delicate way they offered it. You who read will see Jess wince at the offer of charity. But the poor have fine feelings beneath the grime, as you will discover if you care to look for them, and when Jess said she would bake if any one would buy, you would wonder to hear how many kindly folk came ...
— A Window in Thrums • J. M. Barrie



Words linked to "Wince" :   facial expression, start, cringe, quail, squinch, shrink, make a face, flinch, move



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