scringe

English

Etymology

Compare cringe and shrink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skɹɪnd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -ɪndʒ

Noun

scringe (plural scringes)

1. (dialect, UK and US) The act or sound of scratching or scraping.
   • 1990, Field - Issues 42-45, page 7:

     Any teenager who, like myself, has ever got the gooseflesh at the flush and scringe of Hopkins's assonances and alliterations proves this upon his or her pulses .

   • 1994, Briege Duffaud, Nothing Like Beirut, page 41:

     […] to the scringe of bedsprings as the old landlady shook herself awake and reached for her false teeth,

   • 2014, John Montague, The Pear is Ripe: A Memoir:

     But Bill would have none of this: it grated upon his sensibility, like the scringe of chalk upon a slate in the schoolroom, or like our collie dog at home in Garvaghey, who, when Aunt Freda played the piano, would raise his noble nose and howl derisively.

2. (dialect, UK and US) A cringe.
   • 1859 March, “My "Intimate Enemy"”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 18, number 106, page 511:

     Well, on that June day I embraced her with a slight scringe, and, seating her in my armchair, threw myself down upon the floor, out of reach of her arms, with my hands clasped around my knees.

   • 1882, Richard Brodhead Westbrook, The Bible, Whence and what?, page 228:

     Take courage, brother: you are making better progress than we are, for I cannot even get a scringe.

   • 1918, Heave Together:

     A scringe of pain brought the German back to the present .

3. (fishing) A type of dragnet with a bag in the center and a very fine mesh.
   • 1859 October, “Trawling, or Scringing, For Salmon Trout and Other Fish”, in The Knapsack, volume 1, page 258:

     Trawling, or scringing, for salmon trout is, in some respects, similar to splashing, and is also carried on between the hours of sunset and sunrise, in the nooks, bays, and other suitable places along the sore of either the coast or of the sea-water loch, into which rivulets and streams empty themselves, although there are many places in which the splash net can be advantageously used where the scringe cannot be employed, as the latter requires a clear bottom, without any impediments, otherwise it cannot be drawn to the shore.

   • 1867, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Cox, Facts and Useful Hints Relating to Fishing and Shooting, page 24:

     The scringe decidedly takes the precedence of the splash, provided sufficient strength as well as skill be employed for its effective management — because, if the net is not drawn equally and continuously towards the shore, many fish will escape.

   • 1895, John Bickerdyke, Sea Fishing, page 282:

     Of course, with surface-swimming fish the scringe or ground seine need not touch the bottom.

Verb

scringe (third-person singular simple present scringes, present participle scringing, simple past and past participle scringed)

1. (dialect, UK and US, intransitive) To cringe or shrink.
   • 1854 December, “Real Scenes of Gipsy Life”, in The Two-penny post:

     It made me scringe to hear her, Sir, " said she, adding, with a change of tone, " but I must scringe for myself yet; for , oh dear! how can I talk about other people's sins, and I such a sinner!

   • 1907, Supreme Court Appellate Division, page 94:

     Yes, if you put your hand on him he might scringe around a little .

   • 1914, Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins in the Panhandle, page 369:

     It allus made him scringe to have me speak of the Banty woman in the tone I used when I wanted to make him scringe, and I had a notion that flauntin ' his full name wouldn't soothe him much;

   • 1926, Rose Wilder Lane, Hill-Billy, page 15:

     But scringe from him, an' as Shakespeare says, clad in a little brief authority, that houn' dawg'll bite you when you ain't a-watchin' out.

2. (dialect, UK and US, intransitive) To scrape.
   • 1893, English Dialect Society, Publications - Volume 36, page 40:

     When a boy sharpens his slate-pencil with a knife, he says it makes his teeth 'scringe'.

   • 2010, Bernard MacLaverty, Matters of Life & Death, page 56:

     Knee joints were beginning to scringe.

   • 2012, Nelson Nye, Desert of the Damned:

     All her life Gert Kavanaugh had had to scringe and scrape to make ends meet while Marta May — a spoiled brat if Gert had ever seen one — had been the darling of the countryside.

3. (fishing) To fish using a scringe.
   • 1859 October, “Trawling, or Scringing, For Salmon Trout and Other Fish”, in The Knapsack, volume 1, page 258:

     Trawling, or scringing, for salmon trout is, in some respects, similar to splashing, and is also carried on between the hours of sunset and sunrise, in the nooks, bays, and other suitable places along the sore of either the coast or of the sea-water loch, into which rivulets and streams empty themselves, although there are many places in which the splash net can be advantageously used where the scringe cannot be employed, as the latter requires a clear bottom, without any impediments, otherwise it cannot be drawn to the shore.

   • 1874, Archibald Young, Notes on the Scotch Salmon Fishery Acts of 1862 and 1868, page 30:

     The evil complained of, so far from having decreased, has been greater than before, as the men engaged in this lawless pursuit, finding that they scringe with impunity, have become emboldened, and are more industrious than ever.

   • 1918, Poor Law Magazine and Local Government Journal, page 349:

     But in spite of their watchfulness, sometimes a black-looking boat slips over in the dead of night from somewhere in the neighbourhood of Oban, catches the keepers napping, and 'scringes' the mouth of a river, clearing off every salmon and sea-trout in the bay.

Anagrams

• cringes