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What is "embarrassment"

Crossword clues for embarrassment

embarrassment
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
embarrassment
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cause offence/embarrassment (=offend/embarrass someone)
▪ How can I refuse the invitation without causing offence?
hide your disappointment/embarrassment/confusion etc
▪ She laughed to hide her nervousness.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
acute
▪ The prospect of Hitler's trial in the aftermath of the failed putsch caused the Bavarian authorities acute embarrassment.
▪ To my acute embarrassment, the children seemed far more interested in meeting some one from television.
▪ Early in her first premiership it caused her a moment of acute embarrassment.
▪ The bust was an acute embarrassment to Curtis who, in 1970, was the anti-smoking lobby's most famous disciple.
▪ What was at stake was acute government embarrassment.
considerable
▪ He was wearing a scarf, a pair of boots, and a look of considerable embarrassment.
▪ For these drawings, Stephen received considerable embarrassment at the hands of the Art Teacher.
▪ To do so would have entailed considerable embarrassment.
▪ The government subsequently decided not to accept any of the bids for Land Rover during April 1986 amid considerable political embarrassment.
▪ Another case caused considerable embarrassment to Mr Simitis.
▪ The onset of bladder dysfunction ... leads to considerable distress and embarrassment.
financial
▪ Again, professional financial advice on the advantages and disadvantages of this form of borrowing seems a sensible precaution against financial embarrassment.
▪ Even before the war, the Vatican found itself in constant financial embarrassment.
▪ In July 1627 Buckingham embarked upon his ill-fated expedition, which still further increased Charles I's financial embarrassments.
▪ As a rule, financial embarrassment leaves most of us with no choice but to run with the crowd.
further
▪ To avoid further embarrassment he took the butter knife plus the bit of butter with him.
great
▪ In fact, a police raid on ffeatherstonehaugh's would lead to a great deal of embarrassment.
▪ It is the area of abuse that has caused great embarrassment for the president and the Democrats.
▪ This effect is called cross-talk and can be a great nuisance and embarrassment.
▪ At last he whispered with great embarrassment that what was upsetting him was a word that he had heard.
▪ As my son had won one, this meant he suffered a great deal of embarrassment.
major
▪ The whole episode has been a major embarrassment for all concerned.
▪ The disclosure comes as a major embarrassment to the government and other political parties ahead of national elections in April.
▪ This vast stock overhangs the market, and is a source of major embarrassment for the Commission.
political
▪ Their disclosures were, however, likely to cause serious political embarrassment to the Government.
▪ The government subsequently decided not to accept any of the bids for Land Rover during April 1986 amid considerable political embarrassment.
▪ To avoid the possible political embarrassment of such a referendum, the government preferred to make the law itself.
▪ That would certainly suit the Jaguar management's book and has less potential for political embarrassment than an unruly hostile bid.
potential
▪ Organizational defensive routines One of the most powerful ways people deal with potential embarrassment is to create organisational defensive routines.
▪ But the meteorites were a potential embarrassment to the purest forms of uniformitarianism.
▪ That would certainly suit the Jaguar management's book and has less potential for political embarrassment than an unruly hostile bid.
▪ Daley removed the power because it was a potential source of embarrassment and trouble.
▪ The story was a potential embarrassment for a president who fathered the War on Poverty.
severe
▪ That belief has been rudely undermined by the collapse in the market causing severe embarrassment to many big players.
■ VERB
avoid
▪ This avoids the embarrassment - or worse - of overspending.
▪ Determined to avoid embarrassment, he struggled with the social customs of the day.
▪ The United Nations also helps both countries avoid embarrassment by treating the business arrangements as confidential.
▪ Some White House officials concede the first lady has hurt the administration by efforts to avoid personal embarrassment.
▪ There are many ways for the authorities to avoid the embarrassment and inconvenience of a jury trial when press freedom is involved.
▪ They needed to know, with enough certainty to avoid embarrassment, inconvenience, and lawsuits when the building was completed.
▪ To avoid any possible embarrassment the receptionist should show the lady to a seat in the lounge.
▪ To avoid further embarrassment he took the butter knife plus the bit of butter with him.
become
▪ And no one argued when he said he had become an embarrassment.
▪ He became an embarrassment, and, perhaps more important, an obstacle to trade.
▪ He was becoming an embarrassment to the Government.
▪ With the cold war over, I became an embarrassment to my parents and a joke to my kids.
▪ Nowadays Darra has become an embarrassment to a military regime desperate to dam the flood of weapons flowing through it.
▪ She soon became an embarrassment to her sons.
▪ Now his strategy for recovery looks set to become another huge embarrassment.
▪ As a result, some of the early projects were to become painful embarrassments, and expensive ones.
cause
▪ But what does a Lords defeat actually do, apart from causing some temporary embarrassment to the Government?
▪ It is the area of abuse that has caused great embarrassment for the president and the Democrats.
▪ He was told that such a reference might cause embarrassment to some of the pupils.
▪ He seemed to be genuinely horrified at the prospect of causing embarrassment or disappointment or inconvenience to another person.
▪ That belief has been rudely undermined by the collapse in the market causing severe embarrassment to many big players.
▪ Stopping it or even pausing it would have caused terminal embarrassment for everyone involved.
▪ Their disclosures were, however, likely to cause serious political embarrassment to the Government.
▪ Another case caused considerable embarrassment to Mr Simitis.
cover
▪ Only to cover my embarrassment, I say something really stupid.
▪ It had been constantly pulled down to cover his imagined embarrassment.
▪ These cliches effectively cover our embarrassment and maintain our status.
▪ Often she would say something foolish, immediately regret it, then, to cover her embarrassment, say something worse.
feel
▪ I feel neither shame or embarrassment at my feelings, not do I think they should be ignored.
▪ Sometimes parents feel some embarrassment and guilt toward defiant or stubborn aspects of themselves.
▪ Jezrael could feel her embarrassment gathering physical momentum inside her, turning into nausea.
▪ I felt the heat of embarrassment rise in my cheeks.
▪ Her shift vanished in one swift movement, but in her husband's arms she felt no embarrassment.
flush
▪ Harry nearly jumped back in surprise and flushed instantly in embarrassment at the distaste his flinching movement had signalled.
▪ I flew back to the field flushed with embarrassment.
▪ He flushed with embarrassment and turned away.
▪ The thought made him flush hot with embarrassment even though chilled to the marrow.
▪ Elisabeth wrung her hands, still flushing with embarrassment, hoping David would forgive her.
hide
▪ Even now they talk among themselves to hide their embarrassment.
▪ We hide our heads in embarrassment.
▪ She concentrated on her drink to hide her embarrassment, deciding that whisky was all right.
prove
▪ The odd detail, however, can prove an embarrassment.
▪ The choice of documents proved an embarrassment to the prosecutors, however.
▪ However, his membership of the team could prove an embarrassment to the Government, which is subsidising his bid attempt.
save
▪ It may be of most value for occasional use, in known responders, to save embarrassment when sleeping away from home.
▪ Molinari now explains that she panicked at the question and wanted to save her family from embarrassment.
▪ Mr Noyes will claim the MoD said nothing about the alleged landing because it wanted to save any embarrassment.
▪ It was made to save the Government some embarrassment.
▪ His one-man show yesterday failed to prevent the Hammers moving to fourth in the First Division but it saved Pompey from embarrassment.
▪ You've saved me the embarrassment of having to turn you in!
spare
▪ He collects it from the door when it arrives to spare her the embarrassment of being seen by the boy.
▪ Meredith was relieved to be spared the embarrassment of unavoidable eavesdropping.
suffer
▪ Angry Jemson suffered the embarrassment of coming on as substitute and then being substituted himself at Carrow Road.
▪ Then I worried that he would end up in the wrong homeroom and suffer some embarrassment for such inattention.
▪ They eventually suffered from an embarrassment of riches: they laughingly killed all their enemies and created their worst nightmare.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a flush of anger/embarrassment/excitement etc
die of embarrassment/shame
much to sb's surprise/embarrassment etc
▪ A week later, much to my surprise, I was told my order must be changed.
▪ And much to everyone's surprise he won it.
▪ And he was still sober, much to her surprise.
▪ But he has written a steamy thriller, much to the surprise of his conservative minions.
▪ Pitsligo died there in 1767, head, much to his surprise, still firmly attached to his unrepentant shoulders.
▪ So now he is clubbed to death instead, much to the surprise of the audience.
▪ Those questions were asked in front of a packed gymnasium, much to the Surprise of the state officials who attended.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He looked down at the floor in an attempt to hide his embarrassment.
▪ She read my poem out to the whole class - I almost died of embarrassment.
▪ Stich's arrest was an embarrassment to the agency because they had often criticized foreign governments of corruption.
▪ Will looked down and tried to hide his embarrassment.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ In Britain the only consensus has appeared to be to regard him as an embarrassment.
▪ In their 74-point embarrassment on Sunday, the team appeared disorganized.
▪ Looking in her direction was an embarrassment.
▪ She soon became an embarrassment to her sons.
▪ We have an embarrassment of riches here!
▪ With the cold war over, I became an embarrassment to my parents and a joke to my kids.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Embarrassment

Embarrassment \Em*bar"rass*ment\, n. [F. embarrassement.]

  1. A state of being embarrassed; perplexity; impediment to freedom of action; entanglement; hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness.

    The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper.
    --W. Irving.

    The embarrassments tom commerce growing out of the late regulations.
    --Bancroft.

  2. Difficulty or perplexity arising from the want of money to pay debts.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
embarrassment

1670s, "state of being impeded, obstructed, or entangled" (of affairs, etc.), from embarrass + -ment, or from French embarrassement, from embarrasser.\n

\nAs "a mental state of unease," from 1774. Meaning "thing which embarrasses" is from 1729. Earlier words expressing much the same idea include baishment "embarrassment, confusion" (late 14c.); baishednesse (mid-15c.).

Wiktionary
embarrassment

n. 1 A state of discomfort arising from bashfulness or consciousness of having violated a social rule; humiliation. 2 A state of confusion arising from hesitation or difficulty in choosing. 3 A person or thing which is the cause of humiliation to another. 4 (context medical English) Impairment of function due to disease: ''respiratory embarrassment''.

Related phrases:
WordNet
embarrassment

  1. n. the shame you feel when your inadequacy or guilt is made public

  2. the state of being embarrassed (usually by some financial inadequacy); "he is currently suffering financial embarrassments"

  3. some event that causes someone to be embarrassed; "the outcome of the vote was an embarrassment for the liberals" [ant: disembarrassment]

  4. extreme excess; "an embarrassment of riches" [syn: overplus, plethora, superfluity]

Wikipedia
Embarrassment

Embarrassment is an emotional state of intense discomfort with oneself, experienced when having a socially unacceptable act or condition witnessed by or revealed to others. Usually some amount of loss of honor or dignity is involved, but how much and the type depends on the embarrassing situation. It is similar to shame, except that shame may be experienced for an act known only to oneself. Also, embarrassment usually carries the connotation of being caused by an act that is merely socially unacceptable, rather than morally wrong.

Embarrassment (song)

"Embarrassment" is a song recorded by ska/ pop band Madness, predominantly written by Lee Thompson, but partially credited to Mike Barson. The band first began performing the song at live shows in April 1980, and it was featured on their second studio album, Absolutely.

The song was released as a single on November 14, 1980, and spent 12 weeks in the UK singles chart and reached a high of number 4. The song was remixed for issue as a single, which is different from the album version, although they both have the same running time.

Embarrassment (disambiguation)

Embarrassment is an emotional state experienced upon having an unacceptable act or condition witnessed by or revealed to others.

Embarrassment may also refer to:

  • "Embarrassment" (song), a 1980 ska song recorded by Madness
  • The Embarrassment, an early punk group
  • Embarrassment (Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide episode), an episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "embarrassment".

If Addis spoke lightly of your role, it was only to permit you to refuse with no embarrassment, since in failure your fate will be worse than his.

This should be done, not by administering stimulants, but by relieving it of all contingent embarrassments as far as possible.

FELLOW-CITIZENS:--When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department of society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect that your representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting measures to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future prosperity of the State.

As the Afanc approached, hanging its head in embarrassment, he schooled his features to sobriety and nodded in greeting to the gigantic lake-dweller.

About the end of July 1805 the embarrassment which sometime before had begun to be felt in the finances of Europe was alarmingly augmented.

True, he would be able to put more into them than was in the written word because he was a bit of an actor when he got going, but as the years went on Alee found that he was more than a bit of an embarrassment, people laughed at him.

Nothing was further removed from the intention of the Russian Government than to challenge England, but she felt it impossible to look on at the embarrassment of the Ameer with equanimity, and so determined to fight for the independence of Afghanistan.

As he sate thus, with his dark eye turned towards the scowling and blackening heaven, a horseman rode rapidly up to him, and stopping, as if to let his horse breathe for an instant, made a sort of obeisance to the anchoret, with an air betwixt effrontery and embarrassment.

The period of embarrassment, hesitation, inclination to temporization or even to appeasement has been succeeded among the Nazi leaders by a new phase.

But he had not met the antiquarian, and neither the Archdeacon nor Mornington thought it likely that Sir Giles would do more than cause them as much embarrassment as possible.

She said good-bye to him at Charles de Gaulle airport, surprising Bryson with the ardency of her hug, her kiss that was more than the farewell kiss of a friend, immediately after which she turned away in flushed embarrassment.

Bem managed to whim per Suddenly Kirk found that his own anger at ho Bem had become a source of embarrassment.

The singers alternately leaned toward Brod, then shied off again, to his embarrassment and the amusement of everyone else.

But the greeting fades from my lips as he bows his head in embarrassment and selects a canapé from my tray, puts it in his mouth and then continues to pull his coat on without any further eye contact.

I expect I went rather pink when Chad kissed me, but that was embarrassment.