Ashames

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Causes a person to feel deep embarrassment or humiliation, often by exposing a failing or wrongdoing
2. Brings someone to a state of shame by revealing a flaw, disgrace or inadequacy in them
3. Puts a person to shame through conduct or circumstances that make them feel disgraced or small

Etymology: "Ashames" is the third-person singular present form of "ashame", a verb meaning to put someone to shame or to make them feel ashamed. The base verb descends from Old English "āsċamian", built from the prefix "ā-" and "sċamian", meaning to feel shame. That second element traces back to a Proto-Germanic root, "*skamō", which carried the sense of shame or humiliation, so the verb has been a Germanic formation from its earliest recorded stage. The prefix does the work here. Old English "ā-" intensified or completed the action of the verb it attached to, so "āsċamian" amounted to bringing shame upon someone rather than merely experiencing it. Its modern descendant keeps that causative force: to ashame someone is to make them feel disgraced, and "ashames" simply applies that to a single subject in the present tense.

Synonyms: shame, disgrace, humiliate

Antonyms: honor, exalt