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The Difference Between Abashed and Unabashed
To abash someone is to shake up their self-possession, as illustrated by Charlotte Brontë in her 1849 novel Shirley: "He had never blushed in his life; no humiliation could abash him." When you are unabashed you make no apologies for your behavior (nor do you attempt to hide or disguise it), but when you are abashed your confidence has been thrown off and you may feel rather inferior or ashamed of yourself. English speakers have been using abashed to describe feelings of embarrassment since the 14th century, but they have only used unabashed (brazenly or otherwise) since the 15th century (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Examples of unabashed in a Sentence
Isabela Raygoza, Billboard, 30 Apr. 2025
The song, like the album, is an unabashed rebuke of Israel-U.S. relations and America’s overall warmongering.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 29 Apr. 2025
His films deal with sexuality almost exclusively, giving him unabashed insight into emotional endeavor, not virtue-signaling limited to social groups.
—Armond White, National Review, 25 Apr. 2025
But nothing gets at the unabashed nature of Babygirl’s eroticism like that shot of Samuel tenderly cradling his lover like a child after having spent long hours holed up in a hotel room together indulging in lovemaking and games of dominance and submission.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 25 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unabashed
Cite this Entry
“Unabashed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unabashed. Accessed 14 May. 2025.
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