embarrass.
To disrupt someone's composure or comfort with acting publicly or freely.
Meaning & usage
To disrupt someone's composure or comfort with acting publicly or freely.
The crowd's laughter and jeers embarrassed him.
To hinder from liberty of movement; to impede; to obstruct.
The motion was advanced in order to embarrass the progress of the bill.
To involve in difficulties concerning money matters; to encumber with debt; to beset with urgent claims or demands.
A man or his business is embarrassed when he cannot meet his pecuniary engagements.
To perplex mentally; confuse, disconcert; catch off guard.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Akkadian 𒆟 (rakāsum) Akkadian 𒄙 (markasu)bor. Classical Syriac ܡܰܪܫܳܐ (maršā)bor. Arabic مَرَسَة (marasa)der. Old Galician-Portuguese baraço Old Galician-Portuguese embaraçarbor. Old Spanish embaraçar Spanish embarazarbor. French embarrasserbor. English embarrass Borrowed from French embarrasser, from Middle French embarrasser, embarasser (“to embarrass; to block, obstruct”), from Spanish embarazar, either from Italian imbarazzare or from Portuguese embaraçar.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.