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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
Devan Coggan, EW.com, 3 Aug. 2025
This unabashed romp is often intelligent and always hilarious.
—Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 1 Aug. 2025
Early Robinhood investor Malka, whom Tenev calls his mentor and whose firm has already profited on its stake by more than $5 billion by Forbes’ estimates, is an unabashed Tenev fanboy.
—Nina Bambysheva, Forbes.com, 29 July 2025
Then again, at this point in the meal, some unabashed heartiness was welcome.
—Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 26 July 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 19 Aug. 2025.
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