embarrassing
adjEtymology By surface analysis, embarrass + -ing.
1
Causing embarrassment; leading to a feeling of uncomfortable shame or self-consciousness.
- The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249:
- In a famously embarrassing incident in 1996, America Online's errant dirty-word filter prevented residents of the British town Scunthorpe from signing up as new customers.2004 April 23, Declan McCullagh, “Google's chastity belt too tight”, in CNET, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2011:
1 more example
- “Barack Obama wrote the Epstein files? LOL. This is outright embarrassing,” Candace Owens wrote on X.2025 July 16, Ryan Bort and Asawin Suebsaeng, quoting Candace Owens, “Trump calls Epstein conspiracy a ‘hoax’ and turns on Maga ‘weaklings’”, in Rolling Stone, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2025:
- Derived terms
- embarrassingly, embarrassingness, unembarrassing