Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Great personal dishonor or humiliation.
  • noun An instance or source of this.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Infliction of disgrace or dishonor; the state of being degraded or held in contempt; infamy.
  • noun That which brings disgrace or shameful reproach; a cause or source of dishonor.
  • noun Synonyms Obloquy, Opprobrium, Infamy, Ignominy. These words all started from the idea of one's being talked about shamefully, so that one's name or fame is in great dishonor. Obloquy still stays at that point; opprobrium has taken up somewhat of the general idea of being held in contempt, whether the contempt is expressed or not; infamy carries the evil repute to an extreme, abhorrence and loathing being now a part of the idea; ignominy expresses that peculiarly passive state of being in disgrace by which one is despised and neglected, or it may express the result of official treatment, judicial action, or personal conduct. Ignominy may be supposed to be the state most humbling and painful to the person concerned.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Public disgrace or dishonor; reproach; infamy.
  • noun An act deserving disgrace; an infamous act.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Great dishonor, shame, or humiliation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a state of dishonor

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French ignominie, from Old French, from Latin ignōminia : in-, i-, not; see in– + nōmen, name (influenced by gnōscere, to know); see nŏ̄-men- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French ignominie, from Latin ignominia, from ig- ("not") + nomen ("name").

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Examples

  • Why he didn't bring all this heat the day the Mitchell Report came out, putting his name in ignominy's marquee lights, is a true mystery.

    With reputation at stake, Clemens in tough save situation 2008

  • Undeterred by the getting lost and being brought back in ignominy by the local cops, I did it again soon after (but was more careful to chart my course so that I didn't get lost).

    Home again, home again 2000

  • Tish's idea was this: We would ride up while they were lunching, pretend to think them real bandits, paying no attention to them if they fired at us, as we knew they had only blank cartridges, and, having taken them prisoners, make them walk in ignominy to the nearest camp, some miles farther.

    Tish 1916

  • Jerusalem, but that he would be borne thither in ignominy instead of in his magnificent chariots.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • The patrician was executed on the ready accusation of treason, and the wife of Alexander driven with ignominy from the palace, and banished into Africa.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Severus mounted the tribunal, sternly reproached them with perfidy and cowardice, dismissed them with ignominy from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled them of their splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death, to the distance of a hundred miles from the capital.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • I didn't want to see anyone sent to his desk in ignominy.

    Proof M-mv 2005

  • Herodian, l.v. p. 192.] 59 Hierocles enjoyed that honor; but he would have been supplanted by one Zoticus, had he not contrived, by a potion, to enervate the powers of his rival, who, being found on trial unequal to his reputation, was driven with ignominy from the palace.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • The Congress failed to win in its recently discovered ‘strongholds†™ and adding to the ignominy was the defeat in the Sultanpur-Amethi seat, which falls under the Gandhi bastion.

    Elections - fresh news by plazoo.com 2010

  • Adding further to the ignominy is the fact that one of Ramsay's former proteges, Marcus Wareing, who opened his restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel after a poisonous split with Ramsay, has entered the list at No 52.

    The First Post: Latest 2009

Comments

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  • I think it is near Menomonie.

    July 12, 2007

  • 1. disgrace; dishonor; public contempt.

    2. shameful or dishonorable quality or conduct or an instance of this.

    February 20, 2009

  • Love this word!

    January 29, 2010

  • igneous + hominy

    January 30, 2010

  • Unable to crack the GRE would be an ignominy.

    August 5, 2012

  • others say that the disgrace and ignominy with which God afflicts disbelievers and in which He leaves them to continue for a long time is tantamount to mockery (R).

    The Study Quran

    https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=GVSzBgAAQBAJ&pg=GBS.PR4-IA51.w.6.0.32

    March 2, 2018