Definition

1. Noun:
   • A feeling of self-consciousness, shame, or awkwardness: The emotional state of being embarrassed, often caused by a social misstep, mistake, or exposure of a personal inadequacy.
   • An event or situation that causes such a feeling: A specific incident that leads to embarrassment.
   • A state of financial difficulty: A situation where one lacks sufficient funds, leading to practical difficulties.
   • An overabundance or excess: An overwhelming amount of something, often to the point of being troublesome or difficult to manage.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Feeling):
  • His face turned red with embarrassment after he tripped on stage.
  • She felt a wave of embarrassment when she realized her mistake.
• Noun (Causing Event):
  • The data breach was a major embarrassment for the company.
  • Forgetting the guest's name was a minor embarrassment.
• Noun (Financial State):
  • The unexpected bill caused him considerable financial embarrassment.
• Noun (Excess):
  • The garden produced an embarrassment of riches, with more tomatoes than we could eat.

Advanced Usage

• "an embarrassment of riches": A situation where there is an overabundance of good things, making it difficult to choose or manage them all.
  • The film festival's lineup is an embarrassment of riches for any cinephile.
• "to someone's embarrassment": Used to indicate that something happened causing embarrassment to a specific person or group.
  • Much to his embarrassment, the private email was read aloud to the entire team.

Variants and Related Words

• Embarrass (verb): To cause someone to feel awkward, self-conscious, or ashamed.
  • His question embarrassed her.
• Embarrassing (adjective): Causing a feeling of embarrassment.
  • It was an embarrassing situation for everyone involved.
• Embarrassingly (adverb): In a way that causes embarrassment.
  • The team was embarrassingly defeated.

Synonyms

• Shame: A painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.
• Humiliation: The action of humiliating someone or the state of being humiliated; strong embarrassment.
• Awkwardness: The quality of being awkward; embarrassment or inconvenience.
• Discomfiture: A feeling of unease or embarrassment; awkwardness.

Idioms and Phrases

• "Save someone from embarrassment": To prevent someone from being embarrassed.
  • She quickly changed the subject to save her friend from embarrassment.
• "Blush with embarrassment": To have one's face turn red due to feeling embarrassed.
  • He blushed with embarrassment at the compliment.
• "Suffer embarrassment": To experience embarrassment.
  • The politician had to suffer public embarrassment after the scandal.

Noun

1. extreme excess
   • an embarrassment of riches
2. some event that causes someone to be embarrassed
   • the outcome of the vote was an embarrassment for the liberals
3. the state of being embarrassed (usually by some financial inadequacy)
   • he is currently suffering financial embarrassments
4. the shame you feel when your inadequacy or guilt is made public