hide one's face

Idioms  

1. Also, hide one's head. Feel shame or embarrassment. For example, You needn't hide your face—you're not to blame, or Whenever the teacher singled her out for something, shy little Mary hid her head. This idiom alludes to the gesture indicative of these feelings. [Late 1500s]

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Example Sentences

For those who have come to feel devalued, degraded, left behind, or shunted aside, being asked to hide one’s face must be the ultimate act of public cruelty.

From Slate

The return of the hat, though young women couldn't agree on whether the point of a great hat was to hide one's face or to attract extra attention to it.

From Time

In his book about the experience, Lasdun described his experience in this way: it was an “agony” to go into work because he “felt the literal reality of that elemental attribute of shame, the desire to hide one’s face.”

From Forbes

It was a comfort to be able to hide one’s face, and besides, just between herself and the handkerchief there was a tear.

From Project Gutenberg

Her eyes flashed with unconquerable pride, and her square, firm chin she held very high; for now, indeed, she was filled with terror of what "folks would say" to this home-leaving, and it was a bright June afternoon, too clear for an umbrella with which to hide one's face from prying neighbors, too late in the day for a sunshade.

From Project Gutenberg