ashame

English

Etymology

From Old English āsċamian, āsċeamian, from ā- + sċeamian (“feel shame”), from Proto-Germanic *skamēnan, from *skamō (“shame, humiliation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈʃeɪm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪm

Verb

ashame (third-person singular simple present ashames, present participle ashaming, simple past and past participle ashamed)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To feel shame; to be ashamed.
   • c. 1390, John Wycliffe, transl., edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest English Versions (Wycliffe's Bible), volume II (in Middle English), Oxford UP, published 1850, Isaiah 23:4, page 264, column 1:

     Ashame thou, Sidon, seith the se, the strengthe of the se, seiende, I trauailide not with child, and bar not, and nurshede not out ȝung childer, ne to ful waxing broȝte forth maidenes.

     Be ashamed, Sidon, says the sea, the strength of the sea, saying, “I did not travail with child [give birth], and did not nurse boys, nor to full waxing bring forth maidens.

2. (transitive, rare) To make ashamed; to shame.
   • 1740, The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Sylvanus Urban (ed.), vol 10, p. 245 (Google preview):

     I am young Woman indifferently well brought up in the Country, and might raiſe my fortune conſiderably had I not got ſuch a Habit of Sweating, which quite aſhames me, when in Company, to ſee my Face of a dewy Sweat, and the generality complain of Cold.

   • 1860, Frederic W. Farrar, Julian Home: A Tale of College Life, page 99:

     The notice annoyed and ashamed him.

   • 1983, Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) Oct 18 - Dec 1, page 399:

     If it is one Minister who has done it he has ashamed us all and the title "Minister" will not be respected anymore.

   • 2009, Steve Scott, Insiders - Outsiders, →ISBN, pages 36–37:

     They would think that I had abandoned them, that I could not handle the stress and pressure and this ashamed me immensely.

   • 2013 September 24, Sudarsan Raghavan, “Kenyan officials say Nairobi mall siege is over”, in Washington Post, retrieved 30 Sept 2013:

     “As a nation, our head is bloodied but unbowed,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address, declaring three days of mourning. “We have ashamed and defeated our attackers.”

References

• “ashame”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Seaham