shamefaced
Americanadjective
-
modest or bashful.
-
showing shame.
shamefaced apologies.
adjective
-
bashful or modest
-
showing a sense of shame
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of shamefaced
1545–55; alteration of shamefast by folk etymology; see shame, faced
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There are the shamefaced former members, who confess their gullibility as a kind of penance; there are the cockamamie claims on which the belief system is based.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
We also tend to assume that something is safe if everyone else is doing it, or at least maintain a shamefaced silence about our fears.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2020
In such company, The Book of Henry seems likely to slink away shamefaced, but unnoticed.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 22, 2017
What’s been excised in both cases is the awkward and the homely, the oddball and the failing—in short, all acknowledgement of our thwarted, shamefaced cravings for connection and intimacy.
From Slate ● Mar. 9, 2016
Fingers smarting, the shamefaced Taran hurried from the cottage and found Coll near the vegetable garden.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
