What's the difference between pity and shame?

Pity


Definition:

  • (n.) Piety.
  • (n.) A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration.
  • (n.) A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted.
  • (v. t.) To feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering.
  • (v. t.) To move to pity; -- used impersonally.
  • (v. i.) To be compassionate; to show pity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The voters don’t do gratitude, self-pitying politicians are wont to moan.
  • (2) With grievous amazement, never self-pitying but sometimes bordering on a sort of numbed wonderment, Levi records the day-to-day personal and social history of the camp, noting not only the fine gradations of his own descent, but the capacity of some prisoners to cut a deal and strike a bargain, while others, destined by their age or character for the gas ovens, follow "the slope down to the bottom, like streams that run down to the sea".
  • (3) "); hopeless self-pity ("Nobody said anything to me about Billy ... all day long") and rage ("You want to put a bench in the park in Billy's name?
  • (4) Indeed, mainstream economics is a pitifully thin distillation of historical wisdom on the topics that it addresses.
  • (5) Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?” It is there to remind him that the dots are worth fighting for.
  • (6) Last year, Amnesty International described the world’s response as “pitiful” and earlier this week, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants called on the EU to deliver a proper resettlement programme.
  • (7) April's family had to endure the "spectacle of your hypocritical sympathy for their loss and of your tears", the judge told Bridger, saying any tears were motivated purely by self-pity.
  • (8) And this is the mainspring of so many of his stories, novellas, and his one novel, Beware of Pity : the clash between propriety and desire.
  • (9) It’s actually a pity that there’s now a break because I wanted to continue playing games,” said the Italian.
  • (10) In his final fight, against the journeyman boxer Kevin McBride, he was a pitiful figure - slumped in a corner, legs splayed, unable or unwilling to stand himself up.
  • (11) Other negative emotions – self-pity, guilt, apathy, pessimism, narcissism – make it a deeply unattractive illness to be around, one that requires unusual levels of understanding and tolerance from family and friends.
  • (12) He said it was a “pity” that the UK prime minister “wasn’t able to express the British position at the press conference with Donald Trump standing next to her”.
  • (13) As the turbulent commercial radio sector enters another new phase, Park wants to sweep away the thinking that has left too many of his colleagues wallowing in self-pity, and turn his fire on a familiar target.
  • (14) Broadly defined, this sort of behaviour involves procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, obstructionism, self-pity and a tendency to create chaotic situations.
  • (15) It is a pity we did not take our chances,” the Ukraine coach, Mykhailo Fomenko, said.
  • (16) "This depressing morning has now got me questioning my pitiful existence," sobs James Dodge.
  • (17) Foreign dignitaries were invited to attend for the first time and it is a pity that from Europe only Javier Solana chose to take the offer up.
  • (18) Men convicted of rape are often pitied in the media and, like Evans, quickly vault back to positions of fame .
  • (19) But after the strange denials that this old, sick man is dying I want to talk not with pity but of his power.
  • (20) Staff here dread the welfare reform bill, waiting for debts, arrears, evictions and pitiful hardship to wash up on their doorstep.

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.