Meaning of embarrassment | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A state of discomfort arising from bashfulness or consciousness of having violated a social rule; humiliation.
   countable, uncountable
2. Shame, embarrassment.
3. A person or thing which is the cause of humiliation to another.
   countable, uncountable
4. A large collection of good or valuable things, especially one that exceeds requirements or causes some sort of hindrance.
   countable, uncountable
5. A state of confusion; hesitation; uncertainty.
   countable, uncountable
6. Impairment of function due to disease: respiratory embarrassment.
   countable, uncountable
7. Difficulty in financial matters; poverty.
   countable, dated, uncountable
8. A group of pandas (ie. red panda, giant panda)
   collective, countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The desired effect [of affectionate teasing] is a look of pleasurable embarrassment, as if you administered a compliment. Anyone who doesn't stop teasing immediately upon producing real embarrassment, anger or tears is not really teasing.”

“Jack, you are an embarrassment to this family.”

“Losing this highly publicized case was an embarrassment to the firm.”

“The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months.”

“There are over 5,000 Americans now in Paris, many artists, singers, musicians, writers, and actors, so many, indeed, the committee could hardly pick a program from an embarrassment of volunteers.”

“The landscape presented an embarrassment of riches for the industrial archaeologist, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century remains were still visible in abundance”

“At one time, I reflected, we'd had an embarrassment of good, qualified squad leader—ready men in the platoon.”

“[…]and render them more intelligible than all the commentaries which have been written on them, for they generally render the authour more obscure, and lead the reader into greater embarrassments, by what they explain, than by what they leave untouched.”

CEFR level