1
a
: a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety
b
: the susceptibility to such emotion
have you no shame?
2
: a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute : ignominy
the shame of being arrested
3
a
: something that brings censure or reproach
b
: a cause of feeling shame
shamed; shaming
1
: to bring shame to : disgrace
shamed the family name
2
: to put to shame by outdoing
3
: to cause to feel shame
4
: to force by causing to feel guilty
shamed into confessing
Synonyms
Examples of shame in a Sentence
Noun
He felt shame for his lies.
How could you be so rude? Have you no shame?
Her crimes brought shame upon her family.
He had to endure the shame of being fired.
Verb
He was shamed by his behavior at the party.
shamed the family name with his conviction for embezzlement
Recent Examples on the Web
Richard Meyer, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2025
West’s hellfire-and-locust symbolism parodied biblical judgment, but such shame no longer applies to current secular permissiveness or the progressive ideology in Marxist writer Mike Davis’s City of Quartz (1990), famous for its subversive condemnation of Los Angeles’s capitalist elitism.
—Armond White, National Review, 31 Jan. 2025
David Greising, Chicago Tribune, 31 Jan. 2025
The goal here, in focusing on language, is not to shame anyone or to make people self-conscious about their use of words.
—Stephanie H. Murray, The Atlantic, 31 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for shame 
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Noun
Might the title speak to a shame the exhibition itself sought to overcome?
—Richard Meyer, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2025
West’s hellfire-and-locust symbolism parodied biblical judgment, but such shame no longer applies to current secular permissiveness or the progressive ideology in Marxist writer Mike Davis’s City of Quartz (1990), famous for its subversive condemnation of Los Angeles’s capitalist elitism.
—Armond White, National Review, 31 Jan. 2025
Verb
Scolding and shaming the president, as Pritzker has done, won’t do much good.
—David Greising, Chicago Tribune, 31 Jan. 2025
The goal here, in focusing on language, is not to shame anyone or to make people self-conscious about their use of words.
—Stephanie H. Murray, The Atlantic, 31 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for shame
Dictionary Entries Near shame
Cite this Entry
“Shame.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shame. Accessed 8 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
shame
1 of 2 noun1
a
: a painful emotion caused by having done something wrong or improper
b
: ability to feel shame
have you no shame?
3
: something that brings disgrace or causes shame or strong regret
4
: something to be regretted : pity
it's a shame you'll miss the show
shame
2 of 2 verb
shamed; shaming
1
: to bring shame to : disgrace
2
: to cause to feel shame
3
: to force by causing to feel guilty
they were shamed into confessing
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