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The Difference Between Abashed and Unabashed
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).
Examples of unabashed in a Sentence
Jake Kanter, Deadline, 12 Jan. 2026
Rick is an unabashed man with an over-the-top love of getting into sticky situations.
—Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 12 Jan. 2026
Like most conservative economists at the time, Hassett was a staunch deficit hawk, an advocate of higher levels of immigration, and, above all else, an unabashed free trader.
—Rogé Karma, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2026
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
See All Example Sentences for unabashed
Cite this Entry
“Unabashed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unabashed. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.
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