ABASH

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(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abash mean? 

• ABASH (verb)
  The verb ABASH has 1 sense:

1. cause to be embarrassed; cause to feel self-conscious

  Familiarity information: ABASH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABASH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they abash    ... he / she / it abashes   
Past simple: abashed   
Past participle: abashed   
-ing form: abashing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to be embarrassed; cause to feel self-conscious

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

abash; embarrass

Hypernyms (to "abash" is one way to...):

discomfit; discompose; disconcert; untune; upset (cause to lose one's composure)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "abash"):

confuse; disconcert; flurry; put off (cause to feel embarrassment)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

The bad news will abash him
The good news will abash her

Derivation:

abashment (feeling embarrassed due to modesty)

 Context examples 

Then she laughed at him, delighting in his confusion, and as he looked into her frank eyes and knew that she had divined nothing of what he felt, he became abashed.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In spite of himself, he appeared abashed by my aunt's indignant tears, and came slouching out of the garden.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then everybody laughed and jeered at her; and she was so abashed, that she wished herself a thousand feet deep in the earth.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The footman had suddenly precipitated himself into the room, but stood abashed before the fierce glare of the admiral’s eye.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He merely sprang to the side and ran stiffly ahead for several awkward leaps, in carriage and conduct resembling an abashed country swain.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He glanced at her frizzled head, bare shoulders, and fantastically trimmed dress with an expression that abashed her more than his answer, which had not a particle of his usual politeness in it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Not that he was abashed.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Her elder cousins mortified her by reflections on her size, and abashed her by noticing her shyness: Miss Lee wondered at her ignorance, and the maid-servants sneered at her clothes; and when to these sorrows was added the idea of the brothers and sisters among whom she had always been important as playfellow, instructress, and nurse, the despondence that sunk her little heart was severe.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I was abashed at having made so great a mistake, and was glad to change the subject.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He hesitated, abashed at his first attempt to use a strange word.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)