- shame
- [[t]ʃe͟ɪm[/t]]
♦♦♦shames, shaming, shamed1) N-UNCOUNT 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...
They feel shame and guilt as though it is their fault...
Her father and her brothers would die of shame...
I was, to my shame, a coward.
2) N-UNCOUNT 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...
He committed suicide rather than face the shame of being linked to the scandal.
Syn:3) VERB If something shames you, it causes you to feel shame.[V n] Her son's affair had humiliated and shamed her.
4) VERB If you shame someone close to you, you make people lose their respect for that person, by behaving in an unacceptable way.[V n] I wouldn't shame my father by trying that.
5) VERB If you shame someone into doing something, you force them to do it by making them feel ashamed not to.[V n into/out of n/-ing] He would not let neighbours shame him into silence...
[V n into/out of n/-ing] Museums have now been shamed out of selling the treasures from their collections.
6) N-SING: a N, oft it v-link N that (feelings) 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...
They did not have enough money to adopt a child. It was such a shame.
7) CONVENTION (feelings) 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!
8) PHRASE: V inflects 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.
English dictionary. 2008.
