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Embarrassing   /ɪmbˈɛrəsɪŋ/   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.


adjective
embarrassing  adj.  
1.
Hard to deal with; as, greeted with an embarrassing silence.
Synonyms: awkward, disconcerting, off-putting, sticky, tight, unenviable.
2.
Causing to feel shame or chagrin or vexation.
Synonyms: mortifying, shame-making.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Embarrassing" Quotes from Famous Books



... adopted it, dropped my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter. And being then, from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real doubter in many points of our religious doctrine, I found this method safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight in it, practiced it continually, and grew very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the consequences of which ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry
... thing—eighteen; and she had a sort of school-girl infatuation for Dick. They all get it. You see, he's such a boy when he's playing that they can't realize that he's a hard-bitten, hard-working, deep- thinking, mature, elderly benedict. The embarrassing thing was that the little girl, when she was first revived and before she could gather her wits, exposed all her secret heart. Dick's face was a ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London
... precise terms are irrecoverable: "How the King, questioning him about his bits of French studies, brought down a LA FONTAINE from the shelves, and said, 'Translate me this Fable;' which the Boy did, with such readiness and correctness as obtained the King's praises: praises to an extent that was embarrassing, and made the honest little creature confess, 'I did it with my Tutor, a few days since!' To the King's much greater delight; who led him out to walk in the Gardens, and, in a mood of deeper and deeper seriousness, discoursed and exhorted him on the supreme law of truth and probity that lies ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... the embarrassing Situation, the Host gave a Sign and the Menials came running with the Third Course, a tempting array ...
— Knocking the Neighbors • George Ade
... that the same key opened her door and the doctor's? If it were so, it was an embarrassing coincidence. She must change the ...
— The Green Rust • Edgar Wallace


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