embarassment

Noun

embarrassment (countable and uncountable, plural embarrassments)

1. A state of discomfort arising from bashfulness or consciousness of having violated a social rule; humiliation.
   • The desired effect [of affectionate teasing] is a look of pleasurable embarrassment, as if you administered a compliment. Anyone who doesn't stop teasing immediately upon producing real embarrassment, anger or tears is not really teasing.1998 February 22, Judith Martin, “Tease and sympathy”, in The Washington Post
2. A person or thing which is the cause of humiliation to another.
   • Jack, you are an embarrassment to this family.
3. A large collection of good or valuable things, especially one that exceeds requirements or causes some sort of hindrance.
   • There are over 5,000 Americans now in Paris, many artists, singers, musicians, writers, and actors, so many, indeed, the committee could hardly pick a program from an embarrassment of volunteers.1914, Collier's, page 30
4. A state of confusion; hesitation; uncertainty.
   • […]and render them more intelligible than all the commentaries which have been written on them, for they generally render the authour more obscure, and lead the reader into greater embarrassments, by what they explain, than by what they leave untouched.1785, James Ridgway, A Dictionary of Literary Conversation
5. Impairment of function due to disease: respiratory embarrassment.
6. (dated) Difficulty in financial matters; poverty.

See all 7 meanings of embarrassment