Most often, this thinly veiled bullying is aimed at children, the queer community, women and especially neurodivergent and disabled people. For zoomers who grew up watching the evolution of the "basic" aesthetic among millennials and are now falling into similar cycles themselves, cheugy is a way to capture that slight out-of-touchness. That sets it apart somewhat from its predecessors: describing someone as "local" or "basic" is indubitably judgmental, implying a kind of obliviousness or strict adherence to mainstream culture. If you hate the fact that theres no right answer here, dont give up hope. Technically, when you form adjectives by adding a y to the end of a noun or verb, you are supposed to drop the e at the end of the word. That means that if you are used to cringy and think cringey looks really strange, you can suit yourself and keep using it. That is the heart of the problem with cringe culture usually the people getting made fun of are harmless, just too awkward or earnest to exist on the ironic and sarcastic world of the internet. The cheugy aesthetic, while encapsulating a number of similar products or phenomena as "basic," can also be applied regardless of gender. The next time you need to say somethings embarrassing or awkward, why not try the word cringe-worthy instead? Lets turn murk into murky! Preparing for your Cambridge English exam? The path can be icy. But it's . Cheugy. Our website services, content and products are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This is simply due to the way the search algorithm works. All the same, the spelling cringey is the one most commonly included in dictionaries as the head word (or main spelling), with cringy delegated to an alternate spelling. This also, more or less, means that it doesnt matter whats correct so much as it matters what people are used to seeing and using. Contrary to popular belief, the job of a dictionary is actually not to list a correct spelling, but rather to describe actual usage. It could also mean to feel awkward or embarrassed or to act in an extraordinarily servile and humble manner. As happens with many slang terms, a quickly abbreviated version YQY (yas queen, yas) will also do the trick. cringey 1. In linguistics, descriptivism is the word used for an approach to language that is based in how people actually use it in real life. See additional information. Cringey was widespread in casual speech, on social media, and online publications like The New York Post and Cosmopolitan. One of the things that makes English such a great language is how versatile it is. Cheugy. Or you might try boyfriend or girlfriend to get words that can mean either one of these (e.g.