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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
Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 11 Jan. 2025
To many, of course, this shift only foreshadows a surge in unabashed disinformation across Meta’s platforms—a transition into Face-Value-book, Misinfo-gram, and Whats-Even-True-Anymore-App.
—Raven Smith, Vogue, 8 Jan. 2025
Not all of the forecasts below touch on the industry’s volatility—many commentators focused instead on style and design trends expected to shape the watch world in 2025, from 1990s nostalgia to an unabashed celebration of risk-taking design.
—Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 6 Jan. 2025
Carter’s unabashed evangelism was an outlier in a Democratic Party that grew more secular and pluralistic during his public life.
—Bill Barrow, Los Angeles Times, 2 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for unabashed 
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Cite this Entry
“Unabashed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unabashed. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.
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