embarrass

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"Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace,"

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. transitive verb To cause to feel self-conscious or ill at ease; disconcert: Meeting adults embarrassed the shy child.
  2. transitive verb To involve in or hamper with financial difficulties.
  3. transitive verb To hinder with obstacles or difficulties; impede.
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Examples (36)

  • Through the whole story of Gissing one feels that everything that was in any way hostile to his own views of life did essentially embarrass, and almost make impossible, anything that was in him. —  THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY MAITLAND
  • But now I realize that this is NOT the girl I can embarrass -- if Chelsea is sixteen, she cannot be the baby we dedicated (a Unitarian-Universalist form of baptism) during my circuit-riding ministry years between 1983 and 1985. —  prairiemary
  • A lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, Michael Sullivan of Birmingham, said in some states the names of gun permit owners have been published on the Internet "to embarrass or intimidate people." —  The Times-Journal: News
  • While the Zardari administration has denied that the CIA operates from its territory, the latest Times 'report should be viewed as a gesture by Washington to embarrass -- and further pressurize -- Zardari into accepting America's terms for waging the so-called "war on terror." —  GlobalResearch.ca
  • Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace. —  Gawker
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

embarrass:   embarrassing ·  embarrassed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French embarrasser, to encumber, hamper, from Spanish embarazar, from Italian imbarazzare, from imbarazzo, obstacle, obstruction, from imbarrare, to block, bar : in-, in (from Latin; see en-1) + barra, bar (from Vulgar Latin *barra).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from French embarrasser, encumber, obstruct, block up, entangle, perplex (= Spanish embarazar = Portuguese embaraçar = Italian imbarazzare, embarrass), from Latin in, in, + French barras, Provencal barras, a bar; cf. Spanish barras, a prison, properly plural of Provencal Spanish, etc., barra, French barre, a bar. Cf. embar, embargo, and debarrass, disembarrass.
  2. Also written, as F., embarras; from French embarras = Spanish embarazo = Portuguese embaraço = Italian imbarazzo, embarrassment, obstruction, etc.; from the verb.
 

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/ɛmˈbærəs/
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