cringey-ness
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: From cringey + -ness.
Senses: examples: text: I checked with Zac, and as the photographer snapped away, I made a heart shape with my hands at the camera for old time’s sake. / As the picture got projected up, I continued to ignore Luke’s ever-growing scowl. That’s what happens when a player gets played. / Zac nudged me in the ribs – I tensed any muscle I knew how to move. His dad was striding over. / Mr Lutas nodded up at the photo. / “I can’t believe you’d do that.” / Uh-oh. My heart-shaped cringey-ness didn’t seem as funny four-metres high. I wished both the real me and the giant photo me would disappear.
ref: 2016 September, Beth Garrod, chapter 25, in Super Awkward, London: Scholastic Children’s Books, →ISBN:
text: I’m a middle-age guy who analyzes politics for a living. My wife and I have two kids a little bit younger than you all. One is in college and one is supposed to start this fall (God willing). Since I’m an old codger who doesn’t use social media, I asked them for their thoughts on what makes a good graduation address. Their response: “Keep it short. Make it useful. Don’t be super cringey.” […] Don’t be super cringey. A little cringey-ness is to be expected in politics.
ref: 2020 May 16, John Halpin, “Viewpoint: In defense of brevity, pragmatism, self-criticism”, in The Sentinel, volume 2020, number XXX, Hanford, Calif.: Santa Maria News Media, →OCLC, page A3, columns 2–3:
text: At a hip grocery store, Maggie meets David (Kelvin Harrison Jr., from “Waves”), a handsome singer-songwriter with a rockin’ MOR vibe, and the two have a “High Fidelity” music-geek convo that dances on the edge of cringey-ness. She doesn’t like “Hotel California” (“The Eagles are hokey, and Don Henley is a very mean man. … It’s like the ‘Brown-Eyed Girl’ of Southern California soft rock”), and he doesn’t know who Sam Cooke is—or at least he pretends not to, until she catches him crooning “You Send Me” in the grocery parking lot, at which point Sam Cooke takes over as the film’s Signifier of Musical Integrity.
ref: 2020 May 25, Owen Gleiberman, “‘The High Note’: Film Review”, in Claudia Eller, editor, Variety, Los Angeles, Calif.: Variety Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 May 2020:
text: Another type of toxic habit is rumination. This occurs when you think about something over and over again, usually because of anxiety or because you’re trying to figure out a solution to some negative circumstance. But although learning from the past can be healthy in helping us to learn from past mistakes, there’s a difference in using our previous choices as learning opportunities and wallowing in the cringey-ness of our mistakes.
ref: 2020 October 12, Alyssa Burnette, “When Habits Are Bad, They’re Very, Very Bad”, in Summary of “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” by Jeremy Dean, QuickRead:
text: Create an upbeat mix for your life’s soundtrack. Easier yet, tell Alexa to play songs from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s or whatever musical genre that is your motivational call-to-arms. I created a playlist and titled it “Happy.” (Remember, we are verbing happy, so don’t roll your eyes at me.) I listened to it every day while writing this book and often broke into dance. Added bonus: the unabashed cringey-ness of it would annoy the crap out of my kids. It was the gift that kept on giving.
ref: 2023 November 14, Beth Romero, “Be a Weeble”, in Happy AF: Simple Strategies to Get Unstuck, Bounce Back, and Live Your Best Life, Berkeley, Calif.: She Writes Press, →ISBN, chapter 1 (The Art of Letting Go, Bouncing Back, and Being):
text: That’s what ADHD looks like in real life. What working memory and executive function challenges add up to. At times, it can feel like an absolute shit show. Constantly losing things, forgetting things, going in the wrong direction, and arriving at the wrong places. After a while, it begins to wear on you—the shame of it all; the exhaustion. The cringey-ness of having to tell someone you are running late again, or the expense of having to buy a tenth pair of headphones.
ref: 2024 June 18, Richard Pink, Roxanne Pink, “ADHD Lie #4: I Am Stupid”, in Small Talk: 10 ADHD Lies and How to Stop Believing Them, New York, N.Y.: Ten Speed Press, →ISBN, page 76:
text: When about to hook up with a new guy in episode 5, rather than setting the mood, Joanna goes around her bedroom, hiding photos of her family and explaining why they shouldn’t watch: “That’s my grandpa. Get outta here, Grandpa! He survived Auschwitz… I’m quickly going to turn down my grandma, too. She also survived Auschwitz.” It’s cringey in an almost Michael Scott/The Office way; but where Steve Carrell^([sic]) asks us to love Michael despite his cringey-ness, Bayer is asking us to love Joanna Gold because of her cringey-ness.
ref: 2024 August 13, Neil Landau, “Case Study: I Love That for You; Created by Vanessa Bayer and Jeremy Beiler; Cringe Commerce”, in TV Writing on Demand: What’s Now + What’s Next, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Focal Press, →DOI, →ISBN, part 1 (New Trends, Fresh Spins), chapter 2 (Blurring the Lines: Redefining Genre and Tone in the Dramedy), “Notable Hybrids: Dramadies (Including Seriously Funny Comedies)” section:
text: To my kids, whom I trust to groan and roll their eyes at the slightest hint of cringey-ness or clichés.
ref: 2025 January 14, Samantha Sotto Yambao, “Acknowledgments”, in Water Moon: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Del Rey, →ISBN:
text: ‘He misses holding me through the night and we only get to have morning sex, but he understands that it’s important. He supports my dreams. He buys new dishwashing tablets for me to try and calls them my “new num nums”.’ I reflect on this for a moment. ‘His cringey-ness is becoming more acceptable to me.’
ref: 2025 February 4, Lily Holloway, “Load”, in Carody Culver, editor, No Place Like Home (Griffith Review; 87), South Brisbane, Qld.: Griffith University, →ISBN, →ISSN, section VII:
text: And so, just as you would build a relationship with a partner, you have to build a relationship with yourself. Practices and processes are the way to do that. It requires diligence and time and expectation and disappointment and cringey-ness—just as building a relationship with a partner does, but even more so. Much more.
ref: 2025 April 22, Devi Brown, “Connecting with Your Practice”, in Living in Wisdom: A Path to Embodying Your Authentic Self, Embracing Grief, and Developing Self-Mastery, New York, N.Y.: Balance, →ISBN, part II (Practices for Higher Consciousness):
glosses: Alternative form of cringiness.