shamefaced
/ʃeɪmˈfeɪst
/ /ˈʃeɪmfeɪst/adjective
Feeling or expressing shame or embarrassment: all the boys looked shamefaced...
- Yet this is not a film that apologises, like a shamefaced school boy, for its country's past.
- Despite the shamefaced grins that characterised the victims' interviews, there was no mistaking their anger.
- The 600 guests went home, but she returned, slightly shamefaced, and landed herself a movie deal.
Synonyms
ashamed, abashed, sheepish, guilty, conscience-stricken, guilt-ridden, contrite, sorry, remorseful, repentant, penitent, hangdog, regretful, rueful, apologetic;
embarrassed, mortified, red-faced, chagrined, humiliated, uncomfortable, discomfited;
in sackcloth and ashes
informal with one's tail between one's legs
rare compunctious
Derivatives
shamefacedly
/ /ʃeɪmˈfeɪsɪdli / adverb ...- This space may be called, a bit shamefacedly, the ‘mud room,’ perhaps to explain why a portion of it is devoted to sticks the dogs brought home.
- I politely refused at first, but after their urgings I finally shamefacedly admitted that I could only eat food cooked with bottled water.
- Slowly, perhaps shamefacedly, but ever-so-reluctantly, the rich countries have heeded the message.
shamefacedness
- He had christened it the ‘grammatical fiction’ with that shamefacedness about the first person singular which the Party had inculcated in its disciples.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the sense 'modest, shy'): alteration of archaic shamefast, by association with face.