unabashed

English

WOTD – 14 September 2008

Etymology

un- + abashed

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: ŭn'ə-băshtʹ, IPA(key): /ˌʌnəˈbæʃt/
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  • Rhymes: -æʃt

Adjective

unabashed (comparative more unabashed, superlative most unabashed)

  1. Not disconcerted or embarrassed.
    Synonyms: abashless, composed, poised, unaffected, undaunted, unshamed
    • 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale, Third book, Chapter V:
      For the third time Allan looked at his lawyer. And for the third time his lawyer looked back at him quite unabashed.
    • 1919, Rabindranath Tagore, Letter to M. K. Gandhi:
      Armed with her utter faith in the goodness she must stand unabashed before the arrogance that scoffs at the power of spirit.
  2. Of actions, emotions, facts, etc.: that are not concealed or disguised, or not eliciting shame.
    Synonyms: abashless, barefaced, blatant, impudent, obvious, shameless, unrestrained
    • 1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXXIV, in Middlemarch [], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV, page 180:
      [G]oodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much privacy, elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, [...]
    • 1920, Edith Wharton, “Chapter XXV”, in The Age of Innocence:
      [...]; a balance not artfully calculated, as her tears and her falterings showed, but resulting naturally from her unabashed sincerity.

Translations

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