Dictionary

abashless en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /əˈbæʃ.ləs/ (General-American)
• /əˈbæʃ.lɪs/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Etymology tree English abash Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English abashless From abash + -less.

Meanings

1. (literary) Not disconcerted or embarrassed; not concealed; not eliciting shame.
   • Nor wanted words as ready and as big As the part he played, the bold abashless one. 1868, Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 1, Part 2, lines 1010-1011, p. 127:
   • Where every bird is bold to go / And bees abashless play, / The foreigner before he knocks / Must thrust the tears away. a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “(please specify the chapter or poem)”, in M[abel] L[oomis] Todd, editors, Poems, Third Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1896, page 160:
   • a place created for and by voluptuousness, the abashless and unabashed senses 1936, William Faulkner, chapter 4, in Absalom, Absalom!, New York: Modern Library, page 114:
   • I had endured through watches of the dark The abashless inquisition of each star, 1895, Francis Thompson, Sister Songs, London: John Lane, Part the First, p. 19:

Forms

Deriveds

abashlessly

Synonyms

unblushing · brazen · barefaced · shameless · unshrinking · unabashed