Definition of "flinch" []

• To start or wince involuntarily, as from surprise or pain. (verb-intransitive)
• To recoil, as from something unpleasant or difficult; shrink. (verb-intransitive)
• An act or instance of starting, wincing, or recoiling. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Come now, you’re an intelligent woman, and you don’t flinch from the truth."
• "This was no time to flinch from the British weather; the fate of the Province rested on my reaching the next mile castle."
• ""Butt flinch" is when you're working on a construction site and someone entirely too fat and in need of suspenders gives you a vision that makes you want to have your memory erased."