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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
Jack Irvin, People.com, 5 June 2025
The definitive statements serve as an unabashed outlier among the catalogue of budget scores, growth forecasts and macroeconomic analyses produced since House Republicans passed their version of Trump’s agenda by the narrowest of margins.
—Phil Mattingly, CNN Money, 4 June 2025
On the latest episode of her podcast The Bald and the Beautiful with fellow Drag Race star Katya on Tuesday, Mattel shared her unabashed praise for Beyoncé’s tour.
—Stephen Daw, Billboard, 28 May 2025
This issue was built around residences that offer respite from the routine: homes that are in harmony with their environment and the rhythms of their inhabitants, and that offer an unabashed sense of fantasy and locale.
—Amy Astley, Architectural Digest, 28 May 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 13 Jun. 2025.
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