Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Feeling shame or guilt.
- adjective Feeling inferior, inadequate, or embarrassed.
- adjective Reluctant through fear of humiliation or shame.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Affected or touched by shame; abashed or confused by guilt or a conviction of some wrong action, indecorous conduct, or other impropriety: hardly used attributively: followed by of, or by a dependent clause with that.
- Reluctant through fear of shame: followed by an infinitive: as, I am ashamed to offer it, it is so little.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Affected by shame; abashed or confused by guilt, or a conviction or consciousness of some wrong action or impropriety.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Feeling
shame orguilt . - verb Simple past tense and past participle of
ashame .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective feeling shame or guilt or embarrassment or remorse
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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I walked across the floor and I felt ashamed of my thinness and my ugliness and _I know that he knew that I was ashamed_.
The Dark Forest Hugh Walpole 1912
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I think the one that should be ashamed is Michael Steele.
Congresswoman apologizes for 'great white hope' comment 2009
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The news media has the maturity level of a spoiled adolescent – you know the type of kid that is alway calling someone names and making fun and is deep down in ashamed of themselves but just can't grow up.
Gaffe-prone Biden avoids weighing in on Obama verbal slip 2009
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Anon still hasn't either learned to read or click through, greatly ashamed is what a conservative said he would feel as a member of VT.
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The sweeping statement that healthy people who stay in welfare must be ashamed is flatly wrong
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The sweeping statement that healthy people who stay in welfare must be ashamed is flatly wrong, even in the case you are wanting to use, to use the “shame” as a tool to help one self out of welfare.
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And he used the word ashamed, which I thought was really powerful, rather than just saying we are very sorry.
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Well neither party said the word ashamed, but she did said that a group vacation was not an option as homeland locals would be joining, and while I am welcome, my brother is not for those same locals would gossip.
rainandfire Diary Entry rainandfire 2006
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The following instance is known to _The Christian_ as true, and to a remarkable degree indicates how thoroughly God knows our minutest needs, and how effectively He makes those who ever reproach his name ashamed of their unbelief.
The Wonders of Prayer A Record of Well Authenticated and Wonderful Answers to Prayer 1870
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Another reason why they must now be ashamed is because in the day of their prosperity they had looked with so much disdain upon their neighbours: Thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thee in the day of they pride, v. 56.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word ashamed
One of the more powerful words in the English language. I remember Robert Bly reading this Alden Nolan poem, pausing, and remarking on the use of the word ashamed.
Then there's the Sufjan Stevens song Romulus, in which he sings, "I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her." The narrator is talking about his mother and when he sings "of her," he can't muster any more than a whisper.
January 31, 2007
seanahan commented on the word ashamed
I'm not so sure of the power of this word. There are varying levels of being ashamed. There is the shame of a child, and shame of a man, which are two completely different things. Obviously, shame is a much deeper emotion than something simple like embarrassment, but the expression "you should be ashamed of yourself" doesn't carry with it any gravitas.
February 1, 2007
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word ashamed
agreed. It can be overused.
February 2, 2007