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SHAMEFUL
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing disgrace or shame
Example:
a shameful display of cowardice
Synonyms:
black; disgraceful; ignominious; inglorious; opprobrious; shameful
Classified under:
Similar:
dishonorable; dishonourable (lacking honor or integrity; deserving dishonor)
Derivation:
shamefulness (unworthiness meriting public disgrace and dishonor)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Giving offense to moral sensibilities and injurious to reputation
Example:
the most shocking book of its time
Synonyms:
disgraceful; scandalous; shameful; shocking
Classified under:
Similar:
immoral (deliberately violating accepted principles of right and wrong)
Derivation:
shamefulness (unworthiness meriting public disgrace and dishonor)
Context examples:
She stole a glance at Martin, who was busy putting the boat about on the other tack, and she could have hated him for having made her do an immodest and shameful thing.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
This is very true, said she, at least as far as relates to me, which was all that was meant—and it is very shameful.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
There it lay, so still and gray beneath the drifting wrack—the home of things noble and of things shameful—the theatre where a new name might be made or an old one marred.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Sir Thomas, who had done so much for her and her brothers, and who was gone perhaps never to return! that she should see him go without a tear! it was a shameful insensibility.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
She was very equal, therefore, to address Mr. Bingley on the subject of the ball, and abruptly reminded him of his promise; adding, that it would be the most shameful thing in the world if he did not keep it.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
I was one of the last to go out, and in passing the tables, I saw one teacher take a basin of the porridge and taste it; she looked at the others; all their countenances expressed displeasure, and one of them, the stout one, whispered—Abominable stuff! How shameful!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I doubted it more the next day on Box Hill; when, provoked by such conduct on my side, such shameful, insolent neglect of her, and such apparent devotion to Miss W., as it would have been impossible for any woman of sense to endure, she spoke her resentment in a form of words perfectly intelligible to me.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
The sister with whom she was used to be on easy terms was now become her greatest enemy: they were alienated from each other; and Julia was not superior to the hope of some distressing end to the attentions which were still carrying on there, some punishment to Maria for conduct so shameful towards herself as well as towards Mr. Rushworth.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
