embarrassing

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of embarrass

plural embarrassings

1. uncountableusuallyThe action of the verb to embarrass; embarrassment.

   May 11, 1715, Robert Wodrow, letter to Mrs Wodrow It seemed, at first, to be agreed, that the King should be addressed by the Assembly; but the time of presenting, because of the present embarrassings of affairs, to be left to the Commission.

comparative more embarrassing · superlative most embarrassing

1. Causing embarrassment; leading to a feeling of uncomfortable shame or self-consciousness.

   “Barack Obama wrote the Epstein files? LOL. This is outright embarrassing,” Candace Owens wrote on X.

   2025 July 16, Ryan Bort and Asawin Suebsaeng, quoting Candace Owens, “Trump calls Epstein conspiracy a ‘hoax’ and turns on Maga ‘weaklings’”, in Rolling Stone, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2025

   2 more examples

   The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.

   1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249

   In a famously embarrassing incident in 1996, America Online's errant dirty-word filter prevented residents of the British town Scunthorpe from signing up as new customers.

   2004 April 23, Declan McCullagh, “Google's chastity belt too tight”, in CNET, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2011

   Synonyms: awkward, shameful