English

Noun

embarrassment ‎(plural embarrassments)

1. A state of discomfort arising from bashfulness or consciousness of having violated a social rule; humiliation.
2. A state of confusion arising from hesitation or difficulty in choosing.
3. A person or thing which is the cause of humiliation to another.

   Kevin, you are an embarrassment to this family.

   Losing this highly publicized case was an embarrassment to the firm.

   • 2014 August 21, “A brazen heist in Paris [print version: International New York Times, 22 August 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times:

     The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months.

4. A large collection of good or valuable things, especially one that exceeds requirements.
   • 1914, Collier's, page 30

     There are over 5,000 Americans now in Paris, many artists, singers, musicians, writers, and actors, so many, indeed, the committee could hardly pick a program from an embarrassment of volunteers.

   • 1996, David Morgan Evans, Peter Salway, David Thackray, The Remains of Distant Times: Archaeology and the National Trust, Boydell & Brewer (ISBN 9780851156712), page 188

     The landscape presented an embarrassment of riches for the industrial archaeologist, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century remains were still visible in abundance

   • 2013, Frank Boccia, The Crouching Beast: A United States Army Lieutenant's Account of the Battle for Hamburger Hill, May 1969, McFarland (ISBN 9781476613086), page 256

     At one time, I reflected, we'd had an embarrassment of good, qualified squad leader—ready men in the platoon.

5. (medicine) Impairment of function due to disease: respiratory embarrassment.
6. (countable) A group of pandas; the collective noun for pandas.

Derived terms

Translations

External links

• embarrassment in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• embarrassment in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911