embarrass
Formsembarrasses, embarrassing, embarrassed
- 1To cause someone to feel self-conscious, ashamed, or uncomfortable, especially in public.
A surprise question from the reporter embarrassed the minister during the live broadcast.
He tends to embarrass his colleagues with crude jokes at staff meetings.
Similarhumiliate, shame, mortify, fluster, discomfit
Note
Behind the social sting lies a physical picture. Middle French embarrasser meant both "to embarrass" and "to block". It came from Spanish and Portuguese, where em- "in" met baraço "noose, rope". That rope runs back through Arabic marasa to Akkadian markasu. To embarrass someone is, at root, to tie them up, and the "obstruct" meaning keeps that picture literal.
- 2To throw someone into mental confusion; to disconcert or perplex, catching them off guard.
The lawyer's sudden change of topic embarrassed the witness, who fell silent.
Conflicting instructions embarrass new recruits who cannot tell which order to follow.
Similardisconcert, confuse, fluster, perplex, unsettle
- 3To involve someone in financial difficulty; to burden with debt or beset with pressing demands for money.
The long war embarrassed the treasury, leaving the crown unable to pay its soldiers.
Unexpected medical bills can embarrass a household that once lived comfortably.
Similarstrain, burden, encumber
Note
Money troubles extend the picture of being hemmed in from the "obstruct" meaning: debts and claims close round a person until they cannot move. The object can be a firm as easily as a person, since a business is embarrassed when it cannot meet its engagements. Today the sense survives chiefly in the fixed phrase financially embarrassed, a genteel understatement for being short of money.
- 4To hinder someone or something from moving freely; to impede or obstruct passage.
Fallen branches embarrassed the narrow path through the woods.
Tight rigging can embarrass a ship's crew during a sudden maneuver.
Similarimpede, obstruct, hinder, hamper, encumber
Note
Here the older, physical force survives, and it was seldom only about paths. Rumford in 1796 has register plates embarrass the motion of rising smoke, and Frederic Harrison in 1896 lets a dying philosophy embarrass the course of social progress. Legal English keeps the sense: Judith A. Snider's 2004 judgment in kisikawpemootewin v. Canada describes a vague claim that leaves the defendant embarrassed, meaning hampered rather than ashamed.
Practice
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Origin
English borrowed this from Middle French embarrasser ("to embarrass; to block, obstruct"), which came through Spanish embarazar and Portuguese embaraçar. The Portuguese word combines em- ("in") with baraço ("noose, rope"), which goes back to Arabic marasa ("rope") and ultimately to Akkadian markasu ("rope").