shamelessness
nounEtymology From shameless + -ness.
1
The state or characteristic of being shameless.
- [H]e added to all his other shamelessness this, that he offered the patriarch a large sum of money to buy a bishopric of him.1853, Charles Kingsley, chapter 7, in Hypatia:
- "For instance as to her shamelessness. She was always ready to run half naked about the hills. . . ."1914, Joseph Conrad, chapter 1, in The Arrow of Gold:
1 more example
- She was quite honest with herself; she knew that she was watching for Clay, and she had a magnificent shamelessness in her quest.1919, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 50, in Dangerous Days:
2
Rare An utterance or action which is shameless.
- Shoals of letters are published every week from all parts of the Union telling stories of the unhappiness produced by marriage, sometimes mere bursts of ill-temper, often cynical shamelessnesses, occasionally stories of deep pathos, but all intended as denunciations of the existing scheme of morals, all followed by the same remark that while marriage exists there can be no happiness for mankind.1872 May 18, “The Women's Rights' Convention in New York”, in The Spectator, volume 45, page 624:
- He was able to write in the gloom of his bottle only because of his noseglow nose's glow as it slid over the paper and while he scribbled & scratched nameless shamelessnesses about ethers everybody ever he met. . . .1963, James Joyce, David Hayman, A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake, published 2002, →ISBN, page 109:
1 more example
- He asked of course after Taimsa, who was still dallying in shamelessnesses at Antioch.2006, Judith Weingarten, The Chronicle of Zenobia, →ISBN, page 104:
- Synonyms
- immodesty, unself-consciousness