shamefaced

American  

[sheym-feyst] / ˈʃeɪmˌfeɪst /

adjective

1. modest or bashful.

2. showing shame.

   shamefaced apologies.

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shamefaced British  

/ ˈʃeɪmˌfeɪst, ʃeɪmˈfeɪsɪdlɪ, ˈʃeɪmˌfeɪstlɪ /

adjective

1. bashful or modest

2. showing a sense of shame

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Other Word Forms

• shamefacedly
  adverb
• shamefacedness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of shamefaced

1545–55; alteration of shamefast by folk etymology; see shame, faced

Example Sentences

Shamefaced Hungarian players, who did not share the fire-eating Communist's opinions, privately apologized to the U.S. team.

From Time Magazine Archive

Shamefaced, Tattiana downward looked As if he cruelly had joked!

From Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] A Romance of Russian Life in Verse by Spalding, Henry

Shamefaced, vanquished, crushed, he retraced his steps to the railway-station, and returned to Paris.

From Sentimental Education, Volume II The History of a Young Man by Flaubert, Gustave

"Shamefaced, come; don't you know this gentleman?" said her aunt, encouragingly.

From The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood by Griffiths, Arthur

Shamefaced men brought by their women-folk to see the baby but ill-concealed their triumph when there proved to be no such visible sign of retribution for domestic derelictions.

From Atlantic Classics, Second Series by Addams, Jane