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embarrass

verbcommon in dialogue

  • United States//ɪmˈbæɹəs//
  • Canada//ɪmˈbɛɹəs//
  • Canada//ɛm-//
  • Scotland//ɪmˈbaɾəs//

To disrupt someone's composure or comfort with acting publicly or freely.

verb

  1. 1

    To disrupt someone's composure or comfort with acting publicly or freely.

    The crowd's laughter and jeers embarrassed him.

  2. 2

    To hinder from liberty of movement; to impede; to obstruct.

    The motion was advanced in order to embarrass the progress of the bill.

    If they [registers] act It all, it must be by opposing their flat surfaces to the current of rising smoke in a manner which cannot fail to embarrass and impede its motion..

    This will... be the principal part of education; and this alone will effectively dispel that theological philosophy, which, in its decline, is still powerful enough to embarrass the course both of intellectual and social progress.

    In the case at bar, there is very little beyond bare assertions and bald statements against the unidentified and unspecified Defendant(s). The claim is vexatious in that the Defendant, if identifiable, is left both embarrassed and unable to defend itself. The Court is left with a proceeding so ill-defined that it is unable to discern an argument, or identify any specific material facts.

  3. 3

    To involve in difficulties concerning money matters; to encumber with debt; to beset with urgent claims or demands.

    A man or his business is embarrassed when he cannot meet his pecuniary engagements.

  4. 4

    To perplex mentally; confuse, disconcert; catch off guard.

Etymology

Etymology tree Akkadian 𒆟 (rakāsum) Akkadian 𒄙 (markasu)bor. Classical Syriac ܡܰܪܫܳܐ (maršā)bor. Arabic مَرَسَة (marasa)der. Old Galician-Portuguese baraço Old Galician-Portuguese embaraçarbor. Old Spanish embaraçar Spanish embarazarbor. French embarrasserbor. English embarrass Borrowed from French embarrasser, from Middle French embarrasser, embarasser (“to embarrass; to block, obstruct”), from Spanish embarazar, either from Italian imbarazzare or from Portuguese embaraçar.

Forms

past tense
embarrassed
past participle
embarrassed
present participle
embarrassing
third person singular
embarrasses
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).