dishonour

plural dishonours · alternative US dishonor

1. AustraliaCanadaIrelandNew ZealandSouth AfricaUKcountableuncountableShame or disgrace.

   You have brought dishonour upon the family.

   1 more example

   That which were a dishonour to God the Son, were a dishonour to God the holy Ghost.

   1645, G. Gillespie, Nihil Respondes, section 11

   Synonyms: humiliation, ignominy, unhonour, abasement, disgrace, embarrassment, humiliation, hurt

2. AustraliaCanadaIrelandNew ZealandSouth AfricaUKcountableuncountableLack of honour or integrity.

   Synonyms: indecency, unhonour, unrighteousness, immorality, improbity, impropriety, indecency, undecency

3. AustraliaCanadaIrelandNew ZealandSouth AfricaUKcountableuncountablelawFailure or refusal of the drawee or intended acceptor of a negotiable instrument, such as a bill of exchange or note, to accept it or, if it is accepted, to pay and retire it.

present singular third person dishonours · participle present dishonouring · participle past dishonoured · past dishonoured · alternative US dishonor

1. AustraliaCanadaIrelandNew ZealandSouth AfricaUKTo bring disgrace upon someone or something; to shame.

   You have dishonoured the family.

   1 more example

   Still, in the very fullest blaze of gospel light, while we see that both Christ and His work are most ungratefully and flagrantly dishonoured, by our persistings in the attempt to do for ourselves what He has told us we cannot do, […]

   1854, Robert Aitken, The teaching of the types, page 99

   Synonyms: discomfit, humiliate, mortify, abase, abash, bring low, confuse, confound

2. AustraliaCanadaIrelandNew ZealandSouth AfricaUKTo refuse to accept something, such as a cheque; to not honor.

   disworshipping and dishonouring God

   1684, Obadiah Walker, A Paraphrase and Annotations Upon All the Epistles of St Paul

3. AustraliaCanadaIrelandNew ZealandSouth AfricaUKTo violate or rape.

   “My men, the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese pirate. His character is known; he scuttles all the ships he boards, dishonours the women, and murders the crew.”

   1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash

   Synonyms: defoul, outrage, ravish, abuse, constuprate, defile, defoul, force