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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
Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 21 June 2025
Her unabashed support of Israel also stands in contrast to a range of other musicians who have denounced Israel or expressed pained ambivalence 19 months into the war in Gaza.
—Grace Gilson, Sun Sentinel, 9 June 2025
In the new TikTok, Siwa shows Hughes the video, which caught flack from haters for her raspy voice and unabashed confidence.
—Jack Irvin, People.com, 5 June 2025
The definitive statements serve as an unabashed outlier among the catalogue of budget scores, growth forecasts and macroeconomic analyses produced since House Republicans passed their version of Trump’s agenda by the narrowest of margins.
—Phil Mattingly, CNN Money, 4 June 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 26 Jun. 2025.
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