verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To be ashamed; be greatly ashamed. intransitive, obsolete
2. 2
   To shame; bring reproach on. obsolete, transitive
3. 3
   To dare; presume; have the face to. Northern-England, UK, dialectal, transitive

Etymology

From Middle English forshamen, from Old English forscamian (“to make ashamed, be ashamed, be modest”); equivalent to for- + shame.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.