Adjacent Words

Shame definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SHAME, n.
1. A painful sensation excited by a consciousness of guilt, or of having done something which injures reputation; or by of that which nature nature or modesty prompts us to conceal. Shame is particularly excited by the disclosure of actions which, in the view of men, are mean and degrading. Hence it it is often or always manifested by a downcast look or by blushes, called confusion of face.
Hide, for shame,
Romans, your grandsires' images,
That blush at their degenerate progeny. Dryden.
Shame prevails when reason is defeated. Rambler.
2. The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach, and degrades a person in the estimation of others. Thus an idol is called a shame.
Guides, who are the shame of religion. South.
3. Reproach; ignominy; derision; contempt.
Ye have born the shame of the heathen. Ezek 36.
4. The parts which modesty requires to be covered.
5. Dishonor; disgrace.
SHAME, v.t.
1. To make ashamed; to excite a consciousness of guilt or of doing something derogatory to reputation; to cause to blush.
Who shames a scribbler, breaks a cobweb through. Pope.
I write not these things to shame you. 1 Corinthians 4.
2. To disgrace.
And with foul cowardice his carcass shame. Spenser.
3. To mock at.
Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor. Psalms 14.
SHAME, v.i. To be ashamed.
To its trunk authors give such a magnitude, as I shame to repeat. Raleigh.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a painful emotion resulting from an awareness of inadequacy or guilt
2: a state of dishonor; "one mistake brought shame to all his family"; "suffered the ignominy of being sent to prison" [syn: shame, disgrace, ignominy]
3: an unfortunate development; "it's a pity he couldn't do it" [syn: pity, shame] v
1: bring shame or dishonor upon; "he dishonored his family by committing a serious crime" [syn: dishonor, disgrace, dishonour, attaint, shame] [ant: honor, honour, reward]
2: compel through a sense of shame; "She shamed him into making amends"
3: cause to be ashamed
4: surpass or beat by a wide margin

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English scamu; akin to Old High German scama shame Date: before 12th century 1. a. a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety b. the susceptibility to such emotion <have you no shame?> 2. a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute ; ignominy <the shame of being arrested> 3. a. something that brings censure or reproach; also something to be regretted ; pity <it's a shame you can't go> b. a cause of feeling shame II. transitive verb (shamed; shaming) Date: 13th century 1. to bring shame to ; disgrace <shamed the family name> 2. to put to shame by outdoing 3. to cause to feel shame 4. to force by causing to feel guilty <shamed into confessing>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a feeling of distress or humiliation caused by consciousness of the guilt or folly of oneself or an associate. 2 a capacity for experiencing this feeling, esp. as imposing a restraint on behaviour (has no sense of shame). 3 a state of disgrace, discredit, or intense regret. 4 a a person or thing that brings disgrace etc. b a thing or action that is wrong or regrettable. --v.tr. 1 bring shame on; make ashamed; put to shame. 2 (foll. by into, out of) force by shame (was shamed into confessing). Phrases and idioms: for shame! a reproof to a person for not showing shame. put to shame disgrace or humiliate by revealing superior qualities etc. shame on you! you should be ashamed. what a shame! how unfortunate! Etymology: OE sc(e)amu

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shame Shame, v. i. [AS. scamian, sceamian. See Shame, n.] To be ashamed; to feel shame. [R.] I do shame To think of what a noble strain you are. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shame Shame, n. [OE. shame, schame, AS. scamu, sceamu; akin to OS. & OHG. scama, G. scham, Icel. sk["o]mm, shkamm, Sw. & Dan. skam, D. & G. schande, Goth. skanda shame, skaman sik to be ashamed; perhaps from a root skam meaning to cover, and akin to the root (kam) of G. hemd shirt, E. chemise. Cf. Sham.] 1. A painful sensation excited by a consciousness of guilt or impropriety, or of having done something which injures reputation, or of the exposure of that which nature or modesty prompts us to conceal. HIde, for shame, Romans, your grandsires' images, That blush at their degenerate progeny. --Dryden. Have you no modesty, no maiden shame? --Shak. 2. Reproach incurred or suffered; dishonor; ignominy; derision; contempt. Ye have borne the shame of the heathen. --Ezek. xxxvi. 6. Honor and shame from no condition rise. --Pope. And every woe a tear can claim Except an erring sister's shame. --Byron. 3. The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach, and degrades a person in the estimation of others; disgrace. O C?sar, what a wounding shame is this! --Shak. Guides who are the shame of religion. --Shak. 4. The parts which modesty requires to be covered; the private parts. --Isa. xlvii. 3. For shame! you should be ashamed; shame on you! To put to shame, to cause to feel shame; to humiliate; to disgrace. ``Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.'' --Ps. xl. 14.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shame Shame, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shamed; p. pr. & vb. n. Shaming.] 1. To make ashamed; to excite in (a person) a comsciousness of guilt or impropriety, or of conduct derogatory to reputation; to put to shame. Were there but one righteous in the world, he would . . . shame the world, and not the world him. --South. 2. To cover with reproach or ignominy; to dishonor; to disgrace. And with foul cowardice his carcass shame. --Spenser. 3. To mock at; to deride. [Obs. or R.] Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor. --Ps. xiv. 6.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(shames, shaming, shamed) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Shame is an uncomfortable feeling that you get when you have done something wrong or embarrassing, or when someone close to you has. She felt a deep sense of shame... I was, to my shame, a coward. 2. If someone brings shame on you, they make other people lose their respect for you. I don't want to bring shame on the family name... = disgrace 3. If something shames you, it causes you to feel shame. Her son's affair had humiliated and shamed her. VERB: V n 4. If you shame someone into doing something, you force them to do it by making them feel ashamed not to. He would not let neighbours shame him into silence... VERB: V n into/out of n/-ing 5. If you say that something is a shame, you are expressing your regret about it and indicating that you wish it had happened differently. It's a crying shame that police have to put up with these mindless attacks... N-SING: a N, oft it v-link N that [feelings] 6. You can use shame in expressions such as shame on you and shame on him to indicate that someone ought to feel shame for something they have said or done. He tried to deny it. Shame on him! CONVENTION [feelings] 7. If someone puts you to shame, they make you feel ashamed because they do something much better than you do. His playing really put me to shame. PHRASE: V inflects

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sham (bosh, "to be ashamed," bosheth, "shame," qalon; aischune, "ignominy," atimia, "dishonor," and other words): An oft-recurring word in Scripture almost uniformly bound up with a sense of sin and guilt. It is figuratively set forth as a wild beast (Jer 3:24), a Nessus-garment (Jer 3:25), a blight (Jer 20:18), a sin against one's own soul (Hab 2:10), and twice as the condensed symbol of Hebrew abomination--Baal (Jer 11:13 margin; Ho 9:10 margin; see ISH-BOSHETH). It is bracketed with defeat (Isa 30:3), reproach (Ps 69:7; Isa 54:4; Mic 2:6), confusion (Isa 6:7), nakedness (Isa 47:3; Mic 1:11), everlasting contempt (Da 12:2), folly (Pr 18:13), cruelty (Isa 50:6; Heb 12:2), poverty (Pr 13:18), nothingness (Pr 9:7 the King James Version), unseemliness (1Co 11:6; 14:35 the King James Version; Eph 5:12), and "them that go down to the pit" (Eze 32:25). In the first Biblical reference to this emotion, "shame" appears as "the correlative of sin and guilt" (Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis and Biblical Psychology). Shamelessness is characteristic of abandoned wickedness (Php 3:19; Jude 1:13, margin "Greek: `shames'"). Manifestly, then, shame is a concomitant of the divine judgment upon sin; the very worst that a Hebrew could wish for an enemy was that he might be clothed with shame (Ps 109:29), that the judgment of God might rest upon him visibly.

Naturally, to the Hebrew, shame was the portion of those who were idolaters, who were faithless to Yahweh or who were unfriendly to themselves--the elect people of Yahweh. Shame is to come upon Moab because Moab held Israel in derision (Jer 48:39,27), and upon Edom "for violence against his brother Jacob" (Ob 1:10). But also, and impartially, shame is the portion of faithless Israelites who deny Yahweh and follow after strange gods (Eze 7:18; Mic 7:10; Ho 10:6, and often). But shame, too, comes upon those who exalt themselves against God, who trust in earthly power and the show of material strength (2Ch 32:21; Isa 30:3); and upon those who make a mock of righteousness (Job 8:22; Ps 35:26; 132:18). With a fine sense of ethical distinctions the Biblical writers recognize that in confessing to a sense of shame there is hope for better things. Only in the most desperate cases is there no sense of shame (Ho 4:18; Ze 3:5; Php 3:19; Jude 1:13); in pardon God is said to remove shame (Isa 54:4 twice; Isa 61:7).

On conditions beyond the grave the Biblical revelation is exceedingly reticent, but here and there are hints that shame waits upon the wicked here and hereafter. Such an expression as that in Daniel (12:2) cannot be ignored, and though the writing itself may belong to a late period and a somewhat sophisticated theological development, the idea is but a reflection of the earlier and more elementary period, when the voice of crime and cruelty went up from earth to be heard in the audience chamber of God (Ge 4:11; 6:13). In the New Testament there is similar reticence but also similar implications. It cannot be much amiss to say that in the mind of the Biblical writers sin was a shameful thing; that part of the punishment for sin was a consciousness of guilt in the sense of shame; and that from this consciousness of guilt there was no deliverance while the sin was unconfessed and unforgiven. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt." From one's own past there is no deliverance, save through contrition of spirit and the grace and forgiveness of God. While the sense of shame persists, or, in other words, while the moral constitution of man's nature remains as it is, there will never be wanting an avenger of sin.

Charles M. Stuart

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Abashment, mortification, confusion, humiliation. 2. Disgrace, dishonor, opprobrium, derision, reproach, ignominy, infamy, obloquy, contempt, odium, scandal, degradation, discredit. 3. Reproach, disgrace, scandal, dishonor. 4. Decency, decorum, propriety, modesty. II. v. a. 1. Abash, mortify, confuse, confound, disconcert, discompose, humiliate, humble, make ashamed. 2. Disgrace, dishonor, degrade, debase, discredit, sully, taint, stain, tarnish. 3. Deride, jeer, ridicule, mock at, sneer at, point at, flout.

Moby Thesaurus

abasement, abash, abashment, abomination, apologies, atrocity, attrition, ayenbite of inwit, bad, besmirch, bitterness, blacken, bring down, bring into discredit, bring low, bring shame upon, bully, burning shame, byword, byword of reproach, calamity, calumniate, calumniation, cast reproach upon, catastrophe, chagrin, chasten, coerce, comedown, contempt, contriteness, contrition, coyness, debase, debasement, decency, decorousness, decorum, defamation, defame, deflate, deflation, defrock, degradation, degrade, delicacy, denigration, deplume, derogation, descent, desecration, diffidence, dirty shame, disaster, disconcert, discountenance, discredit, disesteem, disfavor, disgrace, dishonor, disparagement, displume, disrepute, drive, dump, eclipse, elegance, embarrass, embarrassment, error, evil, force, grief, guilt, hangdog look, humble, humbled pride, humiliate, humiliation, humility, ignominy, impute shame to, infamy, iniquity, knavery, let down, letdown, low-down dirty shame, modesty, mortification, mortify, obliquity, obloquy, odium, opprobrium, outclass, outdo, outrage, outshine, outstrip, overshadow, peccancy, pillory, pity, profanation, propriety, prudishness, pudency, pudicity, push, put down, put out, put to shame, put-down, reflect discredit upon, regret, regretfulness, regrets, regretting, remorse, remorse of conscience, remorsefulness, repining, reproach, reprobacy, respectability, sacrilege, scandal, scandalize, seemliness, self-abasement, self-abnegation, self-diminishment, self-reproach, setdown, shamefacedness, shamefastness, shamefulness, show up, shyness, sin, smear, sorriness, sorrow, stain, stigmatize, subdue, suppress, surpass, taint, tarnish, terrible thing, timidity, unfrock, vilification, villainy, violation, wistfulness, wrong