abash

present singular third person abashes · participle present abashing · participle past abashed · past abashed · alternative abasse

1. transitiveTo make ashamed; to embarrass; to destroy the self-possession of, as by exciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to disconcert; to discomfit.First known use First attested from around (1150 to 1350).

   The stare seemed to abash Poirot.

   1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 129

   1 more example

   He was a man whom no check could abash

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   Synonyms: bewilder, confuse, confound, daunt, discompose, disconcert, discountenance, dishearten · Antonyms: abet, animate, buoy, cheer, countenance, embolden, encourage, incite

2. intransitiveobsoleteTo lose self-possession; to become ashamed.First known use Attested from around (1350 to 1470) until the late 16ᵗʰ century.

   [...] as King Uther lay by his queen, he asked her, by the faith she owed to him, whose was the body; then she sore abashed to give answer.

   1485 July 31, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter III, in William Caxton, editor, Le Morte d'Arthur, volume 1