To abash someone is to shake up their self-possession, as illustrated by Charlotte Brontë in her 1849 novel Shirley: "He had never blushed in his life; no humiliation could abash him." When you are unabashed you make no apologies for your behavior (nor do you attempt to hide or disguise it), but when you are abashed your confidence has been thrown off and you may feel rather inferior or ashamed of yourself. English speakers have been using abashed to describe feelings of embarrassment since the 14th century, but they have only used unabashed (brazenly or otherwise) since the 15th century (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
She is an unabashed supporter of the president's policies. unabashed by their booing and hissing, he continued with his musical performance
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The Bush Administration saw this unabashed use of presidential authority as a decisive break from the constraints imposed after Nixon’s fall.—Duncan Hosie / Made By History, TIME, 18 Sep. 2024 Trump has been an unabashed champion of efforts to limit how schools approach issues of race and gender.—Cory Turner, NPR, 8 Sep. 2024 Even a massive tonal swing between the Prime Video original drama and Netflix’s unabashed soap opera couldn’t put an end to the trend.—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 6 Sep. 2024 The latest from director Jason Reitman, who co-wrote with Gil Kenan, Saturday Night is an unabashed ode to a motley crew of artists Reitman clearly reveres.—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 3 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for unabashed
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unabashed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English unabaiste, from un- + abaiste, past participle of abaissen, abaishen to abash
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