Meanings
comparative more embarrassingly · superlative most embarrassingly
- In an embarrassing manner.
He stumbled embarrassingly about the dance floor.
- To the point of embarrassment; to an extreme or bewildering degree.
He soon became not merely tipsy, but embarrassingly drunk.
2 more examples
He was presented with an embarrassingly long list of options.
This is the first Christmas, her mother reports, that Shirley Temple has been sure there isn’t a real Santa Claus. Last season she was embarrassingly curious about the numerous Messrs. Claus she saw on the streets and in department stores.
1938 December 20, Paul Harrison, “Harrison in Hollywood: The Movie Folk Will Leave Town Come Christmas Week-End, and All”, in The Harlan Daily Enterprise, volume 37, number 300, Harlan, Ky., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 8 - Causing embarrassment.
Embarrassingly to me, my companion soon got drunk.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Englishembarrassing
- Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
- Proto-Germanic*līką
- Englishembarrassingly
From embarrassing + -ly.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
embarrassingly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/embarrassingly
“embarrassingly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/embarrassingly. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “embarrassingly,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/embarrassingly.
Source: embarrassingly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.