abash

Definition of abash

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

(transitive)To make ashamed; to embarrass; to destroy the self-possession of, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to disconcert; to discomfit.

“He was a man whom no check could abash”
“The stare seemed to abash Poirot.”

See all 2 definitions

verb

(transitive)To make ashamed; to embarrass; to destroy the self-possession of, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to disconcert; to discomfit.

“He was a man whom no check could abash”
“The stare seemed to abash Poirot.”
(intransitive, obsolete)To lose self-possession; to become ashamed.

“[...] as King Uther lay by his queen, he asked her, by the faith she owed to him, whose was the body; then she sore abashed to give answer.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Attested from 1303, as Middle English abaisen, abaishen, abashen (“lose one's composure, be upset”), from the later 14th-century also transitive "to make ashamed, to perplex or embarrass"; from Anglo-Norman abaïss,…

See full etymology

Attested from 1303, as Middle English abaisen, abaishen, abashen (“lose one's composure, be upset”), from the later 14th-century also transitive "to make ashamed, to perplex or embarrass"; from Anglo-Norman abaïss, from Middle French abair, abaisser (“lose one's composure, be startled, be stunned”), from Old French esbaïr, (French ébahir), from es- (“utterly”) + baïr (“to astonish”), from Medieval Latin *exbadō, from ex- (“out of”) + bado (“to gape, yawn”), an onomatopoeic word imitating a yawn, see also French badaud (“rubbernecker”).

Anagrams of abash

4 plays · some not in Scrabble

Words you can make from abash

24 playable · top: BASH (9 pts)

Best play bash 9 points

4-letter words

3 words

3-letter words

13 words

2-letter words

7 words