Cringe, struggling to suppress a cry of pain, showing fear (8)
I believe the answer is:
cowering
'showing fear' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with motion as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'cringe struggling to suppress a cry of pain' is the wordplay.
'struggling' indicates anagramming the letters (the letters struggle or wriggle into a new form).
'to suppress' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are suppressed or crushed).
'a cry of pain' becomes 'ow' (exclamation of pain).
'cringe' anagrammed gives 'cering'.
'cering' enclosing 'ow' is 'COWERING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cowering that I've seen before include "Crouching down in fear" , "Drawing back" , "Cringing in fear" .)