Definition

Verb: - To feel ashamed, to feel cheap: To experience a sense of shame, embarrassment, or a feeling of being degraded or unworthy, often due to one's own actions or a situation that damages one's dignity or self-respect.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Sau khi nói dối, nó cảm thấy thẹn mặt với bạn bè. (After lying, he felt ashamed in front of his friends.)
  • Làm việc đó xong, tôi thẹn mặt không dám nhìn ai. (After doing that, I felt too ashamed to look anyone in the eye.)
  • Hành động của anh ta khiến cả gia đình thẹn mặt. (His actions made the whole family feel cheap/ashamed.)

Advanced Usage

• "thẹn mặt chết": An intensified expression meaning to be mortified, to feel so ashamed one could die.
  • Nghe lời phê bình, cô ấy thẹn mặt chết. (Upon hearing the criticism, she was mortified.)
• "không biết thẹn mặt": To be shameless, to have no sense of shame.
  • Anh ta làm sai mà không biết thẹn mặt. (He did wrong and shows no shame.)

Variants and Related Words

• Thẹn (verb): To be shy, bashful, or ashamed. A more general term for shame or shyness.
  • Cô bé thẹn thùng khi gặp người lạ. (The little girl was shy when meeting strangers.)
• Xấu hổ (verb): To be embarrassed, to feel ashamed. A very close synonym.
  • Tôi thật xấu hổ vì lỗi lầm của mình. (I am truly ashamed of my mistake.)
• Hổ thẹn (verb): To feel deep shame and disgrace. A stronger, more literary term.
  • Hành vi phản bội khiến họ hổ thẹn với tổ tiên. (The act of betrayal made them feel deep shame before their ancestors.)

Synonyms

• Cảm thấy xấu hổ: To feel embarrassed/ashamed.
• Ngượng: To feel awkward, embarrassed.
• Tủi hổ: To feel humiliated, disgraced.

Related Idioms

• "Mặt dày mày dạn": To be thick-skinned, brazen, shameless. (This is an antonymous concept to ).
  • Bị mắng mà vẫn không chừa, đúng là mặt dày mày dạn. (Being scolded but still not stopping, he is truly shameless.)
• "Chui xuống đất": Literally "to crawl into the ground"; to wish the ground would swallow one up due to extreme embarrassment.
  • Lỡ tay làm vỡ bình hoa quý, tôi muốn chui xuống đất vì thẹn mặt. (I accidentally broke the valuable vase, and I wished the ground would swallow me up out of shame.)

verb

1. feel cheap