disgrace

plural disgraces

1. countableuncountableThe condition of being out of favor; loss of favor, regard, or respect.

   I heare / Macduffe liues in diſgrace. Sir, can you tell / Where he beſtowes himſelfe?

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], page 143

2. countableuncountableThe state of being dishonored, or covered with shame.

   Now she lives in disgrace.

   Synonyms: dishonor, ignominy

3. countableSomeone or something which brings dishonor; the cause of reproach or shame; great discredit.

   His behaviour at the party was a total disgrace! He was leeching on all the ladies, and insulting the men.

   2 more examples

   Practice and whipping were alike unavailing, and Epps, satisfied of it at last, swore I was a disgrace—that I was not fit to associate with a cotton-picking "nigger"—that I could not pick enough in a day to pay the trouble of weighing it, and that I should go into the cotton field no more.

   1853, Solomon Northup, chapter XIII, in [David Wilson], editor, Twelve Years a Slave. […], London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, →OCLC, page 179

   "You are," said Uncle Tinfish, when he recovered the power of speech, "a disgrace, sir, A DIS-GRACE!" The curate merely confirmed Uncle Tinfish's power of divination by a groan.

   1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 162

4. countableobsoleteuncountableAn act of unkindness; a disfavor.

   As for the pulling of them [ambitious men] downe, if the Affaires require it, and that it may not be done with ſafety ſuddainly, the onely Way is, the Enterchange, continually of Fauours, and Diſgraces, whereby they may not know, what to expect; And be, as it were, in a Wood.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Ambition. XXXVI.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 221

present singular third person disgraces · participle present disgracing · participle past disgraced · past disgraced

1. transitiveTo put someone or something out of favor; to bring shame or ignominy upon.

   […] some families renounced the use of a certain praenomen which had been disgraced by one of their name […]

   1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xv

   Synonyms: discredit, disparage, humiliate, abase, bring down to size, cut down to size, debase, defame