Chinese symbol for “cringing”
蜷缩
quán suō
Traditional: 蜷縮
to curl up; to huddle; to cower; cringing
The closest CC-CEDICT match for cringing is 蜷缩 (quán suō), defined as: to curl up; to huddle; to cower; cringing.
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “cringing”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 畏畏缩缩 (畏畏縮縮) | wèi wèi suō suō | cowering; cringing |
| 趑趄嗫嚅 (趑趄囁嚅) | zī jū niè rú | faltering steps, mumbling speech (idiom); hesitant; cringing |
| 趦趄嗫嚅 (趦趄囁嚅) | zī jū niè rú | faltering steps; mumbling speech |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 蜷缩.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 蜷曲 | quán qū | twisted; coiled |
| 蜷伏 | quán fú | to curl up; to lie with knees drawn up |
| 蜷局 | quán jú | to curl up; to coil |
| 蜷卧 (蜷臥) | quán wò | to curl up; to lie curled up |
| 进道若蜷 (進道若蜷) | jìn dào ruò quán | progress seems like regress (alternative wording for 进道若退 (jìn dào ruò tuì)) |
| 缩短 (縮短) | suō duǎn | to shorten; to reduce; to curtail |
| 缩小 (縮小) | suō xiǎo | to reduce; to decrease; to shrink |
| 压缩 (壓縮) | yā suō | to compress; compression |
See also: Japanese symbol for “cringing”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.