EnglishClub ESL Forums

Hello! I've been seeing a lot of people online who use the word cringe as an adjective and im starting to wonder whether or not this is acceptable because as far as I know, the adjective for it should be cringy and not cringe. I just want to make everything clear because i saw someone type "what you're doing is cringe" while playing an online game and I actually argued with them for half an hour about its usage. I told them that it should be 'cringy' and not 'cringe'. But he insisted that 'cringe' correct. Wouldn't 'cringy' be MORE acceptable?

A vocabulary rather than specifically a grammar issue, but... in standard English, 'cringe' is a verb and not an adjective.

(The normal adjectival form is "cringeworthy".)