Meaning of shame in English

shame

noun

/ʃeɪm/ us

/ʃeɪm/

shame noun (BAD LUCK)

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A2 [ S ]

If something is described as a shame, it is disappointing or not satisfactory:

[ + that ] It's a (great/real) shame that the event had to be cancelled.

[ + to infinitive ] Have some more vegetables - it would be a shame to waste them.

"Douglas had to miss the school concert because he was ill." "Oh, what a shame/that's a shame!"

More examplesFewer examples

What a shame that you couldn't go to the party.
"I'm afraid I can't come tonight." " Oh, that's a shame."
It's such a shame they shut that factory down.
"Go on, finish off this tart, Paul." "Well, it seems a shame to let it go to waste."
It seems a shame to miss such a nice occasion.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Good luck and bad luck

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shame noun (BAD FEELING)

C1 [ U ]

an uncomfortable feeling of guilt or of being ashamed because of your own or someone else's bad behaviour:

He said he felt no shame for what he had done.

hang/bow your head in shame The children hung/bowed their heads in shame.

shame of The shame of the scandal was so great that he shot himself a few weeks later.

have no shame You can't go out dressed like that - have you no shame (= don't you feel ashamed about being dressed like that)?

[ U ]

loss of honour and respect:

He thinks there's great shame in being out of work and unable to provide for his family.

bring shame on In some societies, if a woman leaves her husband, it brings shame on her and her family.

put someone to shame

to make someone feel ashamed:

It puts me to shame that I still haven't replied to David's letter.

to my shame

I feel ashamed because:

To my shame, I never wrote and thanked Mary for her present.

shame on you

used to tell someone that they should feel sorry for something they did:

shame on you for Shame on you for being so mean.

More examplesFewer examples

He knew he'd done something wrong and hung his head in shame.
He went scarlet with shame and embarrassment.
Her face burned with shame.
The shame of losing a game of tennis to my mother!
I couldn't treat anyone so badly - I couldn't bear the shame.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Sadness and regret

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Humiliating and degrading

shame noun (COMPARE WELL)

put someone/something to shame

to make someone or something seem not good by comparison:

Your cooking puts mine to shame.

Idiom

die of shame

shame

verb [ T ]

/ʃeɪm/ us

/ʃeɪm/

shame verb [T] (BAD FEELING)

to make someone feel ashamed, or to make someone or something lose honour and respect:

It shames me that I treated her so badly.

The behaviour of a few children has shamed the whole school.

to publicly criticize and draw attention to something someone has done, especially on the internet:

A girl has shamed her library for saying she couldn't take part in a "boys only" robotics course.

shame someone into/out of something

to cause someone to do or not to do something by making them feel ashamed:

[ + -ing verb ] The city council was shamed into taking action after criticism in the national and local media.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Humiliating and degrading

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Chastising & rebuking

shame verb [T] (COMPARE WELL)

to be so much better than something else that the other thing seems of a low standard by comparison:

The school's exam results shame those of the other schools in the area.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Surpassing in quality or number

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shame

exclamation

mainly UK

/ʃeɪm/ us

/ʃeɪm/

used to express disapproval of something that a public speaker is saying:

To cries of "Shame!", the minister announced that taxes were being increased.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Linguistics: interjections

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(Definition of shame from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

shame | American Dictionary

shame

noun [ U ]

/ʃeɪm/

shame noun [U] (GUILT)

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an uncomfortable feeling of guilt or of being ashamed because of your own or someone else’s bad behavior:

He pointed out that society needed to restore a sense of shame about certain things.

shame noun [U] (MISFORTUNE)

an unlucky or disappointing situation:

What a shame that they left just before we arrived.

[ + to infinitive ] Have some more vegetables – it would be a shame to waste them.

Idiom

shame on you

shame

verb [ T ]

/ʃeɪm/

to make someone feel guilty or ashamed:

My aunt told us that in her day women who weren’t married by the age of 25 were considered "old maids" and were so shamed by their families that they would do anything to get married.

(Definition of shame from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of shame

shame

People across the world opened their hearts and opened their purses, shaming governments into matching the monies their peoples had given.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

The thing that has been most distressing has been the virtual 'naming and shaming' of vegetables and then declaring them not guilty.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

We must determine who was responsible and these people must be named and shamed.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

He used the extremely efficient method of naming and shaming, and quite rightly so.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

We are afraid of having a 'witch-hunt' when naming and shaming is carried out.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

Schools were often ranked but never thanked; frequently named and shamed, but rarely sustained and supported.

From the

Hansard archive