Shame

//ʃeɪm// adj, intj, noun, verb

adj, intj, noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An uncomfortable or painful feeling due to recognition or consciousness of one's own impropriety or dishonor, or something being exposed that should have been kept private. uncountable, usually

    "When I realized that I had hurt my friend, I felt deep shame."

  2. 2
    an unfortunate development wordnet
  3. 3
    Something to regret. uncountable, usually

    "It was a shame not to see the show after driving all that way."

  4. 4
    a painful emotion resulting from an awareness of inadequacy or guilt wordnet
  5. 5
    Reproach incurred or suffered; dishonour; ignominy; derision. uncountable, usually

    "[…] because ye haue borne the shame of the heathen,"

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    a state of dishonor wordnet
  2. 7
    The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach and ignominy. uncountable, usually

    "guides who are the shame of religion"

  3. 8
    That which is shameful and private, especially private parts. uncountable, usually

    "And he took fig-leaves and sewed (them) together, and made an apron for himself, and covered his shame."

  4. 9
    The capacity to be ashamed, inhibiting one from brazen behaviour; due regard for one's own moral conduct and how one is perceived by others; restraint, moderation, decency. uncountable, usually

    "Don't you have any shame?"

Verb
  1. 1
    To cause to feel shame. transitive

    "I was shamed by the teacher's public disapproval."

  2. 2
    surpass or beat by a wide margin wordnet
  3. 3
    To cover with reproach or ignominy; to dishonor; to disgrace. transitive

    "And with fowle cowardize his carcas ſhame,"

  4. 4
    cause to be ashamed wordnet
  5. 5
    To denounce as having done something shameful; to criticize with the intent or effect of causing a feeling of shame. transitive

    "Stop shaming others about their food choices."

Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    compel through a sense of shame wordnet
  2. 7
    To drive or compel by shame. transitive

    "The politician was shamed into resigning."

  3. 8
    bring shame or dishonor upon wordnet
  4. 9
    To feel shame, be ashamed. intransitive, obsolete

    "Broder she said I can not telle yow For it was not done by me nor by myn assente For he is my lord and I am his and he must be myn husband therfore my broder I wille that ye wete I shame me not to be with hym nor to doo hym alle the pleasyr that I can"

  5. 10
    To mock at; to deride. obsolete, transitive

    "Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Feeling shame; ashamed.

    "She says that she doesn't touch them, this is important, sometimes maybe a handshake may make them more shame, that is shy or embarrassed."

Intj
  1. 1
    A cry of admonition for the subject of a speech, either to denounce the speaker or to agree with the speaker's denunciation of some person or matter; often used reduplicated, especially in political debates.

    "Mr John Golding: One would not realise that it came from the same Government, because in that letter the Under-Secretary states: "The future of BT's pension scheme is a commercial matter between BT, its workforce, and the trustees of the pensions scheme, and the Government cannot give any guarantees about future pension arrangements." #*: Mr. Charles R. Morris: Shame."

  2. 2
    Ellipsis of what a shame; expressing disappointment or sympathy abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

    "Shame, you poor thing, you must be cold!"

Synonyms

All synonyms
dishonordisgracedisgraceignominypitypity

Example

More examples

"Your singing puts professional singers to shame."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English schame, from Old English sċamu, from Proto-Germanic *skamō. Cognates *German Scham (“shame”) *German Low German Schaam (“shame, shamefacedness”) *Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish skam (“shame”) *Faroese skomm (“shame, dishonour”) *Icelandic skömm (“shame”) *Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌼𐌰 (skama, “shame”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English schamen, from Old English sċamian, from Proto-West Germanic *skamēn, from Proto-Germanic *skamāną. Cognates *Dutch schamen (“to be ashamed”) *German schämen (“to be ashamed or embarrassed, bashful”) *Danish, Norwegian Bokmål skamme (“to be ashamed”) *Icelandic skamma (“to scold”) *Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌽 (skaman, “to be ashamed”).

Related phrases

15 minutes of shameSpanish shameain't no shame in my gamebadge of shamebald-shamebody-shamebody-shamecone of shamecover-shamecreep-shamecrying shamefat-shame

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