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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

abashing en · ADJ

Meanings

  1. Tending to abash; causing embarrassment or the loss of self-possession.
    • Before Angus appeared, Martin had to wait a quarter-hour in a smaller, richer, still more abashing reception-room. 1925, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 24, in Arrowsmith, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 265:
    • But when the roaring died, there was only the silence: the awful, abashing stillness of the prison night. 2006, Sarah Waters, chapter 3, in The Night Watch, London: Virago, published 1944, page 287:
    • […] many young People have by the grace of the Lord been prepared for full Communion, and have taken hold of the Covenant, confessing, that they have felt the impression of that Word upon that abashing occasion spoken: 1684, Increase Mather, chapter 12, in An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences, Boston: Joseph Browning, pages 366–367:
    • Why these fair girls are so stared at by the men, and the young fellows, now-a-days, have a damn’d impudent stare with them,—’tis very abashing to a woman—very distressing! 1784, Hannah Cowley, A Bold Stroke for a Husband, London: T. Evans, act III, scene 3, pages 47–48:
    • 1814, Frances Burney, The Wanderer, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, Volume 1, Chapter 9, p. 166, […] the mixt party there assembled, was prepared to survey her with a curiosity which she found extremely abashing.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more abashing Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most abashing Degree=Sup lexicographic

Deriveds

abashingly

Synonyms

bewildering · disconcerting

abashing en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present) present participle and gerund of abash
    form of abash