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Abash   Listen
verb
Abash  v. t.  (past & past part. abashed; pres. part. abashing)  To destroy the self-possession of; to confuse or confound, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to put to shame; to disconcert; to discomfit. "Abashed, the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is." "He was a man whom no check could abash."
Synonyms: To confuse; confound; disconcert; shame. To Abash, Confuse, Confound. Abash is a stronger word than confuse, but not so strong as confound. We are abashed when struck either with sudden shame or with a humbling sense of inferiority; as, Peter was abashed by the look of his Master. So a modest youth is abashed in the presence of those who are greatly his superiors. We are confused when, from some unexpected or startling occurrence, we lose clearness of thought and self-possession. Thus, a witness is often confused by a severe cross-examination; a timid person is apt to be confused in entering a room full of strangers. We are confounded when our minds are overwhelmed, as it were, by something wholly unexpected, amazing, dreadful, etc., so that we have nothing to say. Thus, a criminal is usually confounded at the discovery of his guilt. "Satan stood Awhile as mute, confounded what to say."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Abash" Quotes from Famous Books



... Ladyship, sighing:—Ah! my Lord, you are not a parent!—you feel nothing of a parent's woe!—you do not hourly regret the absence of a beloved and only son! Don't look serious, my dear Lord, seeing him somewhat abash'd, you have hitherto tenderly loved me.—Perhaps I had a mind to augment your affection, by bringing to your recollection I was not happy.—His Lordship made no reply, but, taking her hand, lifted it respectfully to ...
— Barford Abbey • Susannah Minific Gunning

... lad. "Such manners abash me. There's no answer on the tip o' my tongue. I'm ashamed ...
— Harbor Tales Down North - With an Appreciation by Wilfred T. Grenfell, M.D. • Norman Duncan

... persuade me that they were laughing at anything more grotesque than myself, so, putting a bold face on matters so humiliating, I sauntered as carelessly and loftily as I dared in their direction. My courage seemed to abash them a little; they gathered back their petticoats like birds about to fly. But at hint of a titter, they all three began gaily laughing again till their eyes sparkled brighter than ever, and their cheeks seemed shadows of the roses ...
— Henry Brocken - His Travels and Adventures in the Rich, Strange, Scarce-Imaginable Regions of Romance • Walter J. de la Mare

... and then with not forging it, but passing it, well knowing that somebody else had forged it. Well, Undercliff, the expert, swore positively that the forged note was not written by me; and the Crown, as they call it, was defeated on that charge; but being proved a liar in a court of justice did not abash my accuser; the second charge was pressed with equal confidence. The note, you are to understand, was forged—that admits of no doubt; and I passed it; the question was whether I passed it knowing it to be forged. How was that to be determined? And here it was that my ...
— Foul Play • Charles Reade

... my Book, nor be abash'd, or fear The cutting thumb-nail, or the brow severe; But by the Muses swear, all here is good, If but well read, or ill ...
— A Selection From The Lyrical Poems Of Robert Herrick • Robert Herrick

... and chatted much; I tried to display my knowledge of the Danish language before them, and must often have made use of curious phrases, for the girls could not contain their laughter. But that did not abash me; I laughed with them, applied to my dictionary, which I carried with me, and chatted on. They seemed to gather no very high idea of the beauty of my countrywomen from my personal appearance; for which I humbly crave the forgiveness ...
— Visit to Iceland - and the Scandinavian North • Ida Pfeiffer

... and they detained him, answering his greeting by requests for news and with jests, not too refined, or by demands for presents of jewels, in return for which they promised him the blessings of the goddess. To each he made some apt reply, for even the priestesses of Baaltis could not abash Metem. But while he bandied words, his quick eyes noted one of their number who did not join in this play. She was a spare, thin-lipped woman whom he knew for Mesa, the daughter of the dead Baaltis, who had been a rival candidate for the throne of the high-priestess ...
— Elissa • H. Rider Haggard

... this much at least is true: I am thine own! I doat upon the blue Of thy kind eyes, well knowing that in these Are proofs of God; and down upon my knees I fall subservient, as a man in shame May own a fault; albeit, as with a flame, I burn all day, abash'd and unforgiven, And all unfit to ...
— A Lover's Litanies • Eric Mackay

... soul were spoken upon earth, if once the anguish of its defeat were uttered in human speech, it would break the stoutest barriers of prejudice, it would shake the most sluggish soul to action! It would abash the most cynical, it would terrify the most selfish; and the voice of mockery would be silenced, and fraud and falsehood would slink back into their dens, and the truth would stand forth alone! For ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... becoming zeal, Upright, and learned, as the Pylian sire, Would say how sweetly thou couldst sweep the lyre, And show thy labours for the public weal, Ten thousand virtues tell with joys supreme, But ah! she shrinks abash'd ...
— The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White - With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas • Henry Kirke White

... infamy should be put on all who, in that Parliament, had voted with the Court. This absurd and mischievous motion was discountenanced by all the most respectable Whigs, and strongly opposed by Birch and Maynard, [417] Howe was forced to give way: but he was a man whom no check could abash; and he was encouraged by the applause of many hotheaded members of his party, who were far from foreseeing that he would, after having been the most rancorous and unprincipled of Whigs, become, at no distant time, the most rancorous ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... Sherwood did not do the Grand Duchess, giving the Carlow tenants a treat. She felt no duchess symptoms within herself, and though, of course, she had various manners tucked away to wear as one suits garments to occasions—and it was a Rouen "party-gown" wherewith she chose to abash poor John Harkless at their meeting—here in Carlow, she was a woman of affairs, lively, shrewd, engaging, capable; she was herself (at least she was that side of herself). And it should be explained that Harkless had ...
— The Gentleman From Indiana • Booth Tarkington

... worthy Mother must hear thee if thou wilt needs utter thy Follies; we cannot help it, Friend, I say: if thou wilt we must hear thee: But if thou wert a Man of Understanding, thou wouldst not take Advantage of thy courageous Countenance to abash us Children of Peace. Thou art, thou sayest, a Soldier; give Quarter to us, who cannot resist thee. Why didst thou fleer at our Friend, who feigned himself asleep? he [said [2]] nothing: but how dost thou know what he containeth? ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... as if she would have said something fitting if she could have ruled herself to it; but she said nothing at all. Her failure seemed to abash her, and she could only ask him if he would not have some more coffee, and then excuse herself, and leave him to finish his ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... conscious of the distant murmur of their sweet young voices, although he could not distinguish a word. Annie Lipton was a prettier girl than Clemency, though without her personal charm. Her beauty seemed to abash her, and make her indignant. She was a girl who should have been a nun, and viewed love and lovers from behind iron bars. She treated James with ...
— 'Doc.' Gordon • Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman

... and by the King's rebuke abash'd, With fiercer zeal the Lycians press'd around Their King and councillor; on th' other side Within the wall the Greeks their squadrons mass'd; Then were great deeds achiev'd; nor thro' the breach Could the brave troops of Lycia to the ...
— The Iliad • Homer

... light, Adorn'd with manes of gold, and heavenly bright. The Hours unloosed them, panting as they stood, And heap'd their mangers with ambrosial food. There tied, they rest in high celestial stalls; The chariot propp'd against the crystal walls, The pensive goddesses, abash'd, controll'd, Mix with the gods, and fill ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... Lady Devine, all her outraged maternity nerving her to abash her enemy. "This man may be your husband, but ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke

... great reuerence, according to their custome, he sayde: "My souereigne lorde and maister, if I might speake freely, without seruile feare, which staieth mee, or if the terrour of your displeasure might not abash me, I would willingly declare vnto your maiestie that which concerneth not onely your securitie and saulfegarde, but (which is more) the saulfetie of your whole Empire." Whom Mahomet aunswered with merie countenance in these wordes. "Cast away such colde feare as staieth thee, ...
— The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 • William Painter

... disconcert, perplex, abash, fluster, embarrass, chagrin, pose, nonplus, bewilder, obfuscate, discompose, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... that hung at her side, or to disembarrass herself of the needles and pins which glittered on her breast like a cuirass, the girl slipped into a seat next to Jack. The presence of the strangers did not abash her in the least. Whatever she had to say she said, simply and decidedly; but when she spoke to her cousin Chariot, it ...
— Jack - 1877 • Alphonse Daudet

... soon, with like occasions prest He boldly sent his hand in quest (Inspired with courage from his bride) To reach the pot on t'other side; And, as he fill'd the reeking vase; Let fly a rouser in her face. The little Cupids hov'ring round, (As pictures prove) with garlands crown'd, Abash'd at what they saw and heard, Flew off, nor ever more appear'd. Adieu to ravishing delights, High raptures, and romantic flights; To goddesses so heav'nly sweet, Expiring shepherds at their feet; To silver meads and shady bowers, ...
— The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume I (of 2) • Jonathan Swift

... to behave yourself with me, young man!" I warn him, in a tone which ought to abash him, but ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 30, 1890. • Various



Words linked to "Abash" :   confuse, put off, embarrass, abashment, flurry, untune, disconcert, discompose, discomfit, upset



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