Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLINCH, v.i. [I have not found this word in any other language; but the sense of it occurs in blench, and not improbably it is from the same root, with a different prefix.]

1. To shrink; to withdraw from any suffering or undertaking, from pain or danger; to fail of proceeding, or of performing any thing. Never flinch from duty. One of the parties flinched from the combat. A child, by a constant course of kindness, may be accustomed to hear very rough usage without flinching or complaining. Locke.
2. To fail. Shak.