• IPA: /ʃeɪm/

shame (uncountable)

1. Uncomfortable or painful feeling due to recognition or consciousness of one's own impropriety or dishonor or something being exposed that should have been kept private.

   When I realized that I had hurt my friend, I felt deep shame.

   The teenager couldn’t bear the shame of introducing his parents.

   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     Have you no modesty, no maiden shame?

2. Something to regret.

   It was a shame not to see the show after driving all that way.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 34”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted‎, London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634 ↗:

     Nor can thy ſhame giue phiſicke to my griefe,

   • , Evelyn "Champagne" King, in the song Shame

     And what you do to me is a shame.

3. Reproach incurred or suffered; dishonour; ignominy; derision.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Ezekiel 36:6 ↗:

     […] because ye haue borne the shame of the heathen,

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify ), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019 ↗:

   • And every woe a tear can claim / Except an erring sister's shame.

4. The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach and ignominy.

   • guides who are the shame of religion

5. That which is shameful and private, especially private parts.
   • 1611, KJV, Jubilees 3:22:

     And he took fig leaves and sewed them together and made an apron for himself. And he covered his shame.

   • 1991, Martha Graham, Blood Memory, Washington Square Press

     She turns to lift her robe, and lays it across her as though she were revealing her shame, as though she were naked.

• (uncomfortable or painful feeling) dishonor
• (something regrettable) dishonor, humiliation, mortification, pity
• See also: Thesaurus:shame

• (uncomfortable or painful feeling) honor

• French: honte
• German: Scham
• Italian: vergogna
• Portuguese: vergonha
• Russian: стыд
• Spanish: vergüenza acholo

• French: honte
• German: Schande
• Italian: peccato
• Portuguese: vergonha
• Russian: доса́да
• Spanish: vergüenza, pena

• Italian: vergogne
• Russian: срам
• Spanish: vergüenzas

1. A cry of admonition for the subject of a speech, often used reduplicated, especially in political debates.
   • 1982, "Telecommunications Bill ↗", Hansard

     Mr John Golding: One would not realise that it came from the same Government, because in that letter the Under-Secretary states: "The future of BT's pension scheme is a commercial matter between BT, its workforce, and the trustees of the pensions scheme, and the Government cannot give any guarantees about future pension arrangements."

     Mr. Charles R. Morris: Shame.

   • 1831, [http://books.google.de/books?id=a3FIAAAAYAAJ&vq=shame!&hl=de&pg=PA42#v=onepage&q&f=false The Bristol Job Nott; or, Labouring Man's Friend]

     [...] the Duke of Dorset charged in the list with "not known, but supposed forty thousand per year" (charitable supposition) had when formerly in office only about 3 or £4,000, and has not now, nor when the black list was printed, any office whatever -- (Much tumult, and cries of "shame" and "doust the liars")

2. (South Africa) Expressing sympathy.

   Shame, you poor thing, you must be cold!

shame (shames, present participle shaming; past and past participle shamed)

1. (transitive) To cause to feel shame.

   I was shamed by the teacher's public disapproval.

   • Were there but one righteous in the world, he would […] shame the world, and not the world him.

2. To cover with reproach or ignominy; to dishonor; to disgrace.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book II, canto VIII, stanza 13, page 295 ↗:

     And with fowle cowardize his carcas ſhame,

3. (transitive) To drive or compel by shame.

   The politician was shamed into resigning.

4. (obsolete, intransitive) To feel shame, be ashamed.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:9.22?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter xxij], in Le Morte Darthur, book VII:

     Broder she said I can not telle yow For it was not done by me nor by myn assente / For he is my lord and I am his / and he must be myn husband / therfore my broder I wille that ye wete I shame me not to be with hym / nor to doo hym alle the pleasyr that I can

   • c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […]‎, London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon,  […], published 1609, OCLC 78596089 ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     I do ſhame to thinke of what a noble ſtraine you are, and of how coward a ſpirit.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To mock at; to deride.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Psalms 14:6 ↗:

     Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.

• (to cause to feel shame) demean, humiliate, insult, mortify

• (to cause to feel shame) honor, dignify

• German: beschämen
• Portuguese: envergonhar
• Russian: стыди́ть
• Spanish: avergonzar