To abash someone is to shake up their composure or 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).
She is an unabashed supporter of the president's policies. unabashed by their booing and hissing, he continued with his musical performance
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Some part of Baudelaire’s lifelong free-spending and indolence seems to be a direct rebellion against the man, if not outright Freudian jealousy—Charles was an unabashed mama’s boy.—Literary Hub, 22 Dec. 2025 Hunt was an unabashed lobbyist for his programs and initiatives, often making late-night phone calls to lawmakers to persuade them.—Gary D. Robertson, Fortune, 19 Dec. 2025 Frilly and floral, the hugely popular brand is a wildly unabashed ode to romanticism in a current design environment that so often equates elegance with minimalism and great taste with 50 shades of wan.—Rachel Davies, Architectural Digest, 16 Dec. 2025 Gayner is an unabashed acolyte of the Berkshire way of doing things, right down to his company's portfolio of long-term investments in the stock market and a folksy apathy for quarterly earnings reports.—Josh Brown,sean Russo, CNBC, 11 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for unabashed
Word History
Etymology
Middle English unabaiste, from un- + abaiste, past participle of abaissen, abaishen to abash
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