shame

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“
Or, if it be a shame, the shame is yours; The fault is onely in your Eies, they drew me: Cause you were lovely therefore did I love.

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Definitions (37)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. noun A painful emotion caused by a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness, or disgrace.
  2. noun Capacity for such a feeling: Have you no shame?
  3. noun One that brings dishonor, disgrace, or condemnation.
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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • The sting of his shame was as painful now as it was then, so many years ago. —  Buchanan, Edna - Cold Case Squad (v1.0) (html).html
  • If they really believed him to be the base and dangerous person they had all along described him to be, the shame was theirs for consenting to associate [Pg 13] themselves with him, and to work under him in the Government. —  Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third.
  • Often times the shame is a result of being told, as a boy, in any number of ways, that what they're doing or feeling is wrong. —  Hawaii Reporter
  • He had an immense self-importance: he was unable to picture a world of which he was only a typical part - a world of treachery, violence and lust in which his shame was altogether insignificant. —  nothing new under the sun...
  • The beaver shot, a captivating, if humiliating, form of representation, initially acknowledged the shame experienced by both the subject and the viewer; this shame is the bad taste that underlies what is "pornographic." —  CounterPunch
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Related

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

sorrow ·  pity ·  anger ·  embarrassment ·  guilt ·  humiliation ·  terror ·  sadness ·  pride ·  dismay ·  disgrace

Used in the same contextWord Family

shame:   shames ·  shamed
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. Middle English, from Old English sceamu.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English shame, schame, shome, schome, scheome, scome, ssame, same, from Anglo-Saxon sceamu, scamu = Old Saxon scama = OFries. skome = Dutch schaam (in comp.) = Middle Low German schame = Old High German scama, Middle High German schame, scham, German scham, shame, = Icelandic skömm (skamm-), shame, a wound, = Swedish Danish skam, shame; akin to Anglo-Saxon sceand, sceond, scand, scond = D. G. schande = Gothic (Moesogothic) skanda, shame, disgrace (see shand), and perhaps to Sanskrit √ kshan, wound: see scathe, etc. Cf. sham, orig. a dial, form of shame.
  2. from Middle English shamen, schamen, schamien, schomien, scheomien, seomien, from Anglo-Saxon sceamian, scamian, sceomian, scomian, intransitive be ashamed, transitive (reflexive) make ashamed, = OS, scamian = Dutch schamen = Old High German seamēn, scamōn, Middle High German schamen, German schämen = Icelandic skamma = Swedish skämma = Danish skannne = Goth, skaman, reflexive, make ashamed; from the noun. Cf. ashame, ashamed.
 

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/ʃeɪm/
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