Dictionary

ashame en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /əˈʃeɪm/

Etymology

From Old English āsċamian, from ā- + sċamian (“feel shame”), from Proto-Germanic *skamēnan, from *skamō (“shame, humiliation”).

Meanings

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To feel shame; to be ashamed.
   • Ashame thou, Sidon, seith the se, the strengthe of the se, seiende, I trauailide not with child, and bar not, and nurshede not out ȝung childer, ne to ful waxing broȝte forth maidenes. c. 1390, John Wycliffe, transl., edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest English Versions (Wycliffe's Bible), volume II (in Middle English), Oxford UP, published 1850, Isaiah 23:4, page 264, column 1:
2. (rare, transitive) To make ashamed; to shame.
   • If it is one Minister who has done it he has ashamed us all and the title "Minister" will not be respected anymore. 1983, Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) Oct 18 - Dec 1, page 399:
   • The notice annoyed and ashamed him. 1860, Frederic W. Farrar, Julian Home: A Tale of College Life, page 99:
   • They would think that I had abandoned them, that I could not handle the stress and pressure and this ashamed me immensely. 2009, Steve Scott, Insiders - Outsiders, →ISBN, pages 36–37:
   • I am young Woman indifferently well brought up in the Country, and might raiſe my fortune conſiderably had I not got ſuch a Habit of Sweating, which quite aſhames me, when in Company, to ſee my Face of a dewy Sweat, and the generality complain of Cold. 1740, The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Sylvanus Urban (ed.), vol 10, p. 245 (Google preview)
   • “As a nation, our head is bloodied but unbowed,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address, declaring three days of mourning. “We have ashamed and defeated our attackers.” 2013 September 24, Sudarsan Raghavan, “Kenyan officials say Nairobi mall siege is over”, in Washington Post, retrieved 30 Sep 2013:

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