wince

wince at (something)

To grimace, flinch, or tense up as a response (often involuntary) to some source of pain or discomfort or something disagreeable. My daughter winced at the injection, but she didn't cry. I sat through the entire dinner wincing at my dad's terrible jokes.
See also: wince
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

wince at something

to shrink back because of something, such as pain. She winced at the pain but did not cry out. After he had just winced at the pain for a while, he finally screamed.
See also: wince
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

wince at

v.
To shrink or tense up involuntarily in response to something that causes pain, distress, or discomfort: I winced at this month's phone bill.
See also: wince
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • wince at
  • wince at (something)
  • turd in the punchbowl
  • thanks for nothing
  • strike a sour note
  • hit a sour note
  • be a nasty piece of work
  • a nasty piece of work
  • nasty
  • spare somebody's feelings
References in periodicals archive
Such customized messaging could build better relationships with customers and increase their tolerance to wait for service, Wince maintains.
The five most irritating customer service statements: Research uncovers the phrases most hated by callers to customer service
OEMs can benefit from the new capabilities of XScale PXA300 processor based development with higher processing power with WinCE 7.0, allowing users to enjoy the benefits of complex and concurrent usage models supporting today's stringent requirements for longer battery life, enabling to take advantage of network features for longer periods of time.
e-con Systems Announces its Support for Windows Embedded Compact 7
For enterprises using Windows CE .NET 4.1-based devices with 802.11 networks, WinCE Gphone 1.0 enables real-time, two-way voice communications through IP-PBX's and other enterprise server products.
VLI UNVEILS GPHONE FOR WINDOWS CE .NET 4.1
SEEING the picture of the Circus of Horrors cast in last week's Sunday Mercury made me wince.
Wonderfully weird; letters
It should make every Englishman wince at the failure of Tony Blair to do the same in 2004.
Cricket: Aussies show Brown the way
Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq: MSFT) and LG-Nortel, a joint venture of LG Electronics, an electronics company based in South Korea, and communications solutions provider Nortel (NYSE:NT), announced on Thursday (25 May) the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration in Voice over IP (VoIP), including WinCE-based IP terminals and the new WinCE 6 videophone.
Microsoft and LG-Nortel sign Memorandum of Understanding
THE unfortunate accident footballer Kevin Kyle had while heating up his son's milk bottle will make every bloke wince in sympathy.
RecordView: Groin pains
Sadler's Wells did not win past ten furlongs, and Wince never ran beyond a mile; the sire's sire famously failed in his one attempt at a mile and a half, the dam's sire was a miler, and the grand-dam's only win came at a mile and a quarter.
St Leger trip likely to prove within Quiff's grasp ..World of breeding
A major point that makes tech people in schools wince, but must be said: The site has to be 100 percent everyday.
Do these Web sites work? Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Learn what our digital duo (Odvard Egil Dyrli and Charles Shields) say is right, and wrong, with these district Web sites
But shadow attorney general Dominic Grieve insisted: ``Politicians never wince when they have small audiences.
IDS gets an audience of 67
But shadow attorney general Dominic Grieve insisted: 'Politicians never wince when they have small audiences.
Quiet reception
The RADVISION H.323 Protocol Toolkit is available on many operating systems including multiple MS-Windows platforms, UNIX operating systems, and most real-time operating systems (RTOS) such as VxWorks, Nucleus, WinCE and Texas Instruments DSP BIOS.
RADVISION announces new H.323 toolkit V4.2, supporting advanced features found in latest ITU-T H.323 standards
Claustrophobic readers may wince at Hurd's descriptions of spelunking, but they'll find the author's journeys a rare opportunity to explore the wild caves of the world.
Entering the Stone: On Caves and Feeling through the Dark
Although their name is something that might make you wince, especially if you've had surgery where morphine was used and you couldn't piss on your own afterward, they can blast the rock music with the best of them.
The Catheters
Since I try to be accepting of cultural differences, it made me wince to read "Kateri turned away from the pagan culture of her birth and lived in a world steeped in holiness and piety." Also, I hope it is just a typo that made Petrash list the wrong amendment as that which guaranteed a woman's right to vote.
Petrash, Antonia. More than petticoats; remarkable New York women