Meaning of mauvaise honte | Babel Free

Definitions

Shyness, especially when affected; false modesty.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“In that capacity she sat with becoming easiness of mien (for she was as void of the mauvaise honte as any dutchess in the land⟳) [and] bowed very graciously to the compliments of the gentlemen […].”

“The practice, from whatever it may arise⟳, is very embarrassing to the mauvaise honte of an Englishman: this may easily be surmounted, when it is perceived that the first visit⟳ is always considered as a polite attention.”

“So much for Miss⟳ Jaques, only as far as I could judge⟳ from seeing her in a ball-room, she never evinced any extreme of mauvaise honte – What did you think⟳, mia cara?”

“Nothing but strong excitement and a great occasion overcomes a certain reserve⟳ and mauvaise honte which I have⟳ in public speaking; not a mauvaise honte which in the least confuses me or makes me hesitate for a word, but which keeps me from putting any fervour into my tone or my action.”

“This writer was the victim of the most crushing mauvaise honte, and could therefore describe⟳ it from experience⟳.”

“Slight improvements in processes,and slight varieties in conclusions, are discussed as if they involved the welfare of mankind. They seek⟳ each other's sympathy, and they resent each other's interference, with an ardour of expression at variance with all the sobrieties of business, and the habits of reserve⟳; and old-fashioned English mauvaise honte is extinguished in the excitement...”

CEFR level