What's the difference between embarrassment and shame?

Embarrassment


Definition:

  • (n.) A state of being embarrassed; perplexity; impediment to freedom of action; entanglement; hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness.
  • (n.) Difficulty or perplexity arising from the want of money to pay debts.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) If Lagarde had been placed under formal investigation in the Tapie case, it would have risked weakening her position and further embarrassing both the IMF and France by heaping more judicial worries on a key figure on the international stage.
  • (2) This has been infrequently reported to occur during general anesthesia and to cause respiratory embarrassment, representing a significant hazard.
  • (3) Already the demand for such a liturgy is growing among clergy, who are embarrassed by having to withhold the church's official support from so many of their own flock who are in civil partnerships.
  • (4) Updated at 1.57am GMT 1.55am GMT Andrew Quinn (@AndrewEQuinn) @ busfield @ lengeldavid @ gdnussports Why's it embarrassing?
  • (5) In the wake of the horrors of the second world war it was the proudest gift to a land fit for heroes, delivered at a time when the national debt made our current crisis look like an embarrassing bar tab.
  • (6) MPs have voted to abandon the controversial badger cull in England entirely, inflicting an embarrassing defeat on ministers who had already been forced to postpone the start of the killing until next summer.
  • (7) "I'm not at all embarrassed about being gay, it's just that I don't particularly want the first or only thing that people associate me with to be that I'm gay."
  • (8) Many have degrees or work in professional fields, and feel embarrassed by the fact they have become a victim of fraud.
  • (9) Earlier this fall the skier Bode Miller was one of the few American athletes to speak out against the Russian law, calling it "absolutely embarrassing".
  • (10) Plenty of people felt embarrassed, upset, outraged or betrayed by the Goncourts' record of things they had said or had said about them.
  • (11) He will insist "government should stop feeling embarrassed about the need for more patriotism in our economic policy.
  • (12) Asked whether the loss of control of the streets was embarrassing, Sir Paul replied: "Well the one thing I would say is that it must have been an awful time for the people trying to go about their daily business in those buildings.
  • (13) During interviews, married couples experiencing infertility reported emotional reactions such as sadness, depression, anger, confusion, desperation, hurt, embarrassment, and humiliation.
  • (14) Satisfaction with agency performance remained at a high level and feelings of embarrassment generally declined.
  • (15) Fail, and the nation’s rulers face embarrassment in front of a television audience of more than a billion.
  • (16) Plibersek’s spokesman said on Friday: “Who is Mr Brandis to dictate the language on the Middle East peace negotiations?” The spokesman said the intervention this week amounted to “another foreign policy embarrassment for the Abbott government, which is why [Brandis] was forced by the foreign minister and the Foreign Affairs Department to rush out a statement about his inept pronouncements.” Labor ran into its own controversy earlier this year when Bill Shorten appeared to telegraph a shift in policy around the description of settlements in a major speech to the Zionist Federation of Australia.
  • (17) He looks embarrassed – whether it's at the albums themselves or his intolerance of them, I'm not sure.
  • (18) Perhaps Silver and company would have been a bit more methodical if this embarrassing story had sprung up during the offseason or in early fall, when casual fans are wrapped up in football.
  • (19) Britain's most senior police officer was tonight forced to admit he was "embarrassed" that his officers had lost control of the capital's streets in scenes reminiscent of last year's G20 demonstration.
  • (20) Thomas Mazetti and Hannah Frey, the two Swedes behind the stunt, said they wanted to show support for Belarussian human rights activists and to embarrass the country's military, a pillar of Lukashenko's power.

Shame


Definition:

  • (n.) A painful sensation excited by a consciousness of guilt or impropriety, or of having done something which injures reputation, or of the exposure of that which nature or modesty prompts us to conceal.
  • (n.) Reproach incurred or suffered; dishonor; ignominy; derision; contempt.
  • (n.) The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach, and degrades a person in the estimation of others; disgrace.
  • (n.) The parts which modesty requires to be covered; the private parts.
  • (v. t.) To make ashamed; to excite in (a person) a comsciousness of guilt or impropriety, or of conduct derogatory to reputation; to put to shame.
  • (v. t.) To cover with reproach or ignominy; to dishonor; to disgrace.
  • (v. t.) To mock at; to deride.
  • (n.) To be ashamed; to feel shame.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Stray bottles were thrown over the barriers towards officers to cheers and chants of: “Shame on you, we’re human too.” The Met deployed what it described as a “significant policing operation”, including drafting in thousands of extra officers to tackle expected unrest, after previous events ended in arrests and clashes with police across the centre of the capital.
  • (2) The Bible treats suicide in a factual way and not as wrong or shameful.
  • (3) However, there's been very little mention of what happened in Manchester today – shame on you.
  • (4) There can’t be something, someone that could fix this and chooses not to.” Years of agnosticism and an open attitude to religious beliefs thrust under the bus, acknowledging the shame that comes from sitting down with those the world forgot.
  • (5) Yogi Breisner, performance manager for the British eventing team, said: "It is a real shame that it has been called off, especially in an Olympic year when a lot of the riders and horses would have been on show.
  • (6) The irony of this type of self-manipulation is that ultimately the child, or adult, finds himself again burdened by impotence, though it is the impotence of guilt rather than that of shame.
  • (7) "The whole thing was stupid, Donald called him at once to discuss it, he had such a go at him, I mean, fuck, it's a shame we didn't record it, he fucked him up good, had such a proper fucking go at him."
  • (8) Significant differences (p less than 0.05-p less than 0.01) were found, suggesting that the Eastern mothers strongly expressed their shame, whereas the Western mothers 'felt ashamed' to express it at all.
  • (9) For now, the overriding feeling is helplessness, tinged with shame for the last year of passivity.
  • (10) He was looking down at his feet - and she realised he felt the shame, too.
  • (11) Frankly, it is rather a shame that he does not fall under the Treasure Act (to do so he would have to be over 300 years old and be composed of more than 10% gold or silver).
  • (12) I look back at those moments with shame – you look to your parents to protect you so, when it seems they are falling apart, you lash out at them because you feel vulnerable.
  • (13) We wanted a place where men could discuss masculine topics without facing the same public shaming outcry that happens on social media sites – feminists are quick on the trigger to try to take down anything they consider wrong … Milo Yiannopoulos lost his verified status on Twitter because of his views on masculinity.
  • (14) Digital culture has hardly helped, adding revenge porn, trolls and stranger-shaming to the list of uncomfortable modern obstacles.
  • (15) A boss on some astronomic pay packet may be held back by shame from paying his cleaners too little relative to that, but emotion will not get in the way of ruthlessness if the process all takes place behind the veil of some corporate contract.
  • (16) "The house itself isn't very old ... it's a great shame."
  • (17) This year, on the first day, I bumped into a fellow market regular who was hawking a DVD title (no longer a badge of shame).
  • (18) Reda Eldanbouki, director of the women’s centre for guidance and legal awareness, an Egyptian NGO based in al-Mansoura, said it was shameful for Hijazi to ask the eight presenters to only come back in front of camera once their appearance has become “appropriate”.
  • (19) I got a hint of the price she has paid for her ambidextrous approach to cultural identify after her last interview was published, when a shocking number of British Pakistani men got in touch to denounce her as a shameful infidel.
  • (20) He said similar “name and shame” legislation had run afoul of the first amendment and that the rule may be unconstitutional.