EMBARRASS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Embarrass

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/ɪmbˈɛrəs/ Listen

verb

Embarrass v. t. (past & past part. embarrassed; pres. part. embarrassing)

1.

To hinder from freedom of thought, speech, or action by something which impedes or confuses mental action; to make (a person) unpleasantly self-conscious; to perplex; to discompose; to disconcert; as, laughter may embarrass an orator.

Synonyms: abash, discompose, disconcert, discomfit, chagrin.

2.

To hinder from liberty of movement; to impede; to obstruct; as, business is embarrassed; public affairs are embarrassed.

Synonyms: obstruct, blockade, block, hinder, stymie.

3.

(Com.) To involve in difficulties concerning money matters; to incumber with debt; to beset with urgent claims or demands; said of a person or his affairs; as, a man or his business is embarrassed when he can not meet his pecuniary engagements.

Synonyms: To hinder; perplex; entangle; confuse; puzzle; disconcert; abash; distress. To Embarrass, Puzzle, Perplex. We are puzzled when our faculties are confused by something we do not understand. We are perplexed when our feelings, as well as judgment, are so affected that we know not how to decide or act. We are embarrassed when there is some bar or hindrance upon us which impedes our powers of thought, speech, or motion. A schoolboy is puzzled by a difficult sum; a reasoner is perplexed by the subtleties of his opponent; a youth is sometimes so embarrassed before strangers as to lose his presence of mind.

noun

Embarrass n. Embarrassment. (Obs.)

See images of 'Embarrass'

Etymology of 'Embarrass'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Embarrass" Quotes from Famous Books

... insurrectionary excitement, but the hope of eventually employing him in the cause never quite died out, and in recent times, when his economic condition in many districts has become critical, attempts have occasionally been made to embarrass the Government by agrarian disturbances. The method usually employed is to disseminate among the peasantry by oral propaganda, by printed or hectographed leaflets, and by forged Imperial manifestoes, the belief that the Tsar has ordered the ...

— Russia • Donald Mackenzie Wallace

... of one family under a permanent name, selected for its euphony and appropriateness from among the various cognomens in use among them, of course suppressing mistranslations and grotesque or coarse nicknames calculated to embarrass the educated Indian. My instructions were that the original native name was to be given the preference, if it were short enough and easily pronounced by Americans. If not, a translation or abbreviation might be used, while retaining as much as ...

— The Indian Today - The Past and Future of the First American • Charles A. Eastman

... of a paltry party advantage. It would have been easy for him to recognize the humanity of Durham's policy, and to join with the government in legislating away any technical illegalities that may have existed in Durham's ordinance; but Wellington could not resist the temptation to embarrass the Whig {111} administration, regardless of the injury which he might be doing to the sorely tried people ...

— The 'Patriotes' of '37 - A Chronicle of the Lower Canada Rebellion • Alfred D. Decelles

... short and ill-boding silence, "I mean not," said Mrs Delvile, "to embarrass or distress you; I will not, therefore, keep you in suspense of the purport of my visit. I come not to make enquiries, I come not to put your sincerity to any trial, nor to torture your delicacy; I dispense with all explanation, for I have not one doubt to solve: I know what has passed, I know ...

— Cecilia vol. 3 - Memoirs of an Heiress • Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d'Arblay)

... "You will embarrass me with a sense of obligation," said Mr. Markland, in seeking to turn him from a certain ...

— The Good Time Coming • T. S. Arthur

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