Adjacent Words

Embarrassment definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

EMBAR'RASSMENT, n. Perplexity; intricacy; entanglement.
1. Confusion of mind.
2. Perplexity arising from insolvency, or from temporary inability to discharge debts.
3. Confusion; abashment.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the shame you feel when your inadequacy or guilt is made public
2: the state of being embarrassed (usually by some financial inadequacy); "he is currently suffering financial embarrassments"
3: some event that causes someone to be embarrassed; "the outcome of the vote was an embarrassment for the liberals" [ant: disembarrassment]
4: extreme excess; "an embarrassment of riches" [syn: overplus, plethora, superfluity, embarrassment]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1729 1. a. something that embarrasses <the scandal was a major embarrassment> b. an excessive quantity from which to select — used especially in the phrase embarrassment of riches 2. the state of being embarrassed: as a. confusion or disturbance of mind <couldn't hide her embarrassment> b. difficulty arising from the want of money to pay debts c. difficulty in functioning as a result of disease <cardiac embarrassment>

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Embarrassment Em*bar"rass*ment, n. [F. embarrassement.] 1. A state of being embarrassed; perplexity; impediment to freedom of action; entanglement; hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness. The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper. --W. Irving. The embarrassments tom commerce growing out of the late regulations. --Bancroft. 2. Difficulty or perplexity arising from the want of money to pay debts.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(embarrassments) 1. Embarrassment is the feeling you have when you are embarrassed. It is a source of embarrassment to Londoners that the standard of pubs is so low... We apologise for any embarrassment this may have caused. N-VAR: oft N prep 2. An embarrassment is an action, event, or situation which causes problems for a politician, political party, government, or other public group. The poverty figures were undoubtedly an embarrassment to the president. N-COUNT: usu with supp 3. If you refer to a person as an embarrassment, you mean that you disapprove of them but cannot avoid your connection with them. You have been an embarrassment to us from the day Douglas married you. N-SING: a N [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Perplexity, difficulty, entanglement. 2. Trouble, distress, vexation, plague. 3. Confusion, abashment.

Moby Thesaurus

abasement, abashment, absorption, agitation, awkwardness, baffle, bafflement, bashfulness, befuddlement, bewilderment, bind, bother, botheration, broken fortune, burden, burthen, cargo, chagrin, chaos, charge, cloud, clumsiness, clutch, comedown, complication, confoundment, confusion, constraint, coyness, cross, crunch, cumbrance, daze, deadweight, debasement, deflation, demureness, demurity, descent, difficulties, difficulty, dilemma, disadvantage, discombobulation, discomfiture, discomfort, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertedness, disconcertion, disconcertment, discountenance, disgrace, disorder, disorganization, disorientation, distress, disturbance, dump, embarrassing position, encumbrance, engagement, enigma, enmeshment, entanglement, excess, fine how-do-you-do, fix, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, freight, frenzy, fuddle, fuddlement, genteel poverty, hamper, handicap, hangdog look, hard pinch, hardship, haze, hell to pay, hobble, hot water, how-do-you-do, humbled pride, humiliation, imbroglio, impecuniosity, impecuniousness, impediment, impedimenta, implication, imposition, inclusion, inconvenience, insolvency, involution, involvement, jam, jumble, letdown, light purse, load, lumber, maze, mess, mist, mix, morass, mortification, mousiness, muddle, muddlement, mystery, narrow means, nonplus, onus, oversupply, pack, parlous straits, pass, penalty, perplexity, perturbation, pickle, pinch, plight, poorness, pother, poverty, predicament, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, problem, profusion, pucker, put-down, puzzle, puzzlement, quagmire, quandary, quicksand, relation, riddle, ruffle, scrape, self-abasement, self-abnegation, self-consciousness, self-diminishment, setdown, shame, shamefacedness, shamefastness, shuffle, shyness, skittishness, slender means, slough, spot, squeeze, stagefright, stammering, stew, sticky wicket, strain, strait, straitened circumstances, straits, superabundance, superfluity, surplus, swamp, sweat, swivet, tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, timidity, timidness, timorousness, tizzy, tricky spot, trouble, unassuredness, unease, uneasiness, unholy mess, unprosperousness, unsettlement, upset, vexation, voluntary poverty, vows of poverty, weight, white elephant