abashment
nounUK /əˈbæʃ.mənt/ · US /əˈbæʃ.mənt/
Etymology From Middle English abaisshment, from Middle French abaissement (“astonishment”) alteration of esbaissement, from esbaiss + -ment. Compare French ébahissement. Equivalent to abash + -ment.
1
The state of feeling abashed; embarrassment from shame; timid shyness as from one's modesty being challenged.
- And the lorde shall smyte the with madnesse, and blyndnesse & abashment of herte.1540, Myles Coverdale, transl., The Byble in Englyshe, London: Thomas Berthelet, Deuteronomy 28[.28]:
- For her faint hart was with the frosen cold Benumbd so inly, that her wits nigh fayld, And all her sences with abashment quite were quayld.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 521:
3 more examples
- On my appearing her Spirits again took the Alarm. She scarce ventured a Glance toward me. I was greatly pained by the Abashment under which I saw she laboured, and I hastened to relieve myself as well as her from the Distress.1768, Henry Brooke, chapter 13, in The Fool of Quality, volume 3, Dublin, pages 35–36:
- “Did he say he would let you meet some white women if you joined the reds?” He knew that sex relations between blacks and whites were repulsive to most white men. “Nawsuh,” he said, simulating abashment.1940, Richard Wright, Native Son, London: Jonathan Cape, published 1970, Book 2, p. 185:
- […] Marc, who well knew the pangs and abashments of romantic love, recognized the emotions here as genuine and heartfelt and was encouraged.2014, Don Gutteridge, chapter 8, in Death of a Patriot, New York: Simon & Schuster, page 104: