different between shame vs tarnish

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Etymology 1

From Middle English schame, from Old English s?amu, from Proto-Germanic *skam?.

Noun

shame (usually uncountable, plural shames)

1. Uncomfortable or painful feeling due to recognition or consciousness of one's own impropriety or dishonor, or something being exposed that should have been kept private.
2. Something to regret.
   • 1977, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Shame

     And what you do to me is a shame.
3. Reproach incurred or suffered; dishonour; ignominy; derision.

   • […] because ye haue borne the shame of the heathen,

   • 1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour

     And every woe a tear can claim / Except an erring sister's shame.

4. The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach and ignominy.

   • guides who are the shame of religion

5. That which is shameful and private, especially private parts.
   • 1611, KJV, Jubilees 3:22:

     And he took fig leaves and sewed them together and made an apron for himself. And he covered his shame.

   • 1991, Martha Graham, Blood Memory, Washington Square Press

     She turns to lift her robe, and lays it across her as though she were revealing her shame, as though she were naked.

Synonyms

• (uncomfortable or painful feeling): dishonor
• (something regrettable): dishonor, humiliation, mortification, pity
• See also: Thesaurus:shame

Antonyms

• (uncomfortable or painful feeling): honor

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

shame

1. A cry of admonition for the subject of a speech, either to denounce the speaker or to agree with the speaker's denunciation of some person or matter; often used reduplicated, especially in political debates.
   • 1982, "Telecommunications Bill", Hansard

     Mr John Golding: One would not realise that it came from the same Government, because in that letter the Under-Secretary states: "The future of BT's pension scheme is a commercial matter between BT, its workforce, and the trustees of the pensions scheme, and the Government cannot give any guarantees about future pension arrangements."

     Mr. Charles R. Morris: Shame.

   • 1831, The Bristol Job Nott; or, Labouring Man's Friend

     [...] the Duke of Dorset charged in the list with "not known, but supposed forty thousand per year" (charitable supposition) had when formerly in office only about 3 or £4,000, and has not now, nor when the black list was printed, any office whatever — (Much tumult, and cries of "shame" and "doust the liars")

2. (South Africa) Expressing sympathy.

   Shame, you poor thing, you must be cold!

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English schamen, from Old English s?amian, from Proto-West Germanic *skam?n, from Proto-Germanic *skam?n?.

Verb

shame (third-person singular simple present shames, present participle shaming, simple past and past participle shamed)

1. (transitive) To cause to feel shame.

   • Were there but one righteous in the world, he would […] shame the world, and not the world him.

2. To cover with reproach or ignominy; to dishonor; to disgrace.
3. (transitive) To drive or compel by shame.

4. (obsolete, intransitive) To feel shame, be ashamed.
5. (obsolete, transitive) To mock at; to deride.

   • Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.

Synonyms

• (to cause to feel shame): demean, humiliate, insult, mortify

Antonyms

• (to cause to feel shame): honor, dignify

Derived terms

• ashamed
• beshame
• (sense: to cause to feel shame) creep-shame
• name and shame

Translations

References

• shame in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Hames, Shema, ahems, haems, hames, heams

English

Etymology

From Middle English ternysshen, a borrowing from Old French terniss-, stem of ternir (“to make dim, make wan”), borrowed from Frankish *darnijan (“to conceal”). Doublet of dern and darn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??n??/

Noun

tarnish (usually uncountable, plural tarnishes)

1. Oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air.
   • 1918, Hannah Teresa Rowley, Mrs. Helen Louise (Wales) Farrell, Principles of Chemistry Applied to the Household

     Precipitated calcium carbonate, a very fine powdery form, is used as a basis for many tooth powders and pastes. As whiting it finds a wide use in cleaning metals of their tarnishes.

Translations

Verb

tarnish (third-person singular simple present tarnishes, present participle tarnishing, simple past and past participle tarnished)

1. (intransitive) To oxidize or discolor due to oxidation.

2. (transitive) To compromise, damage, soil, or sully.

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To lose its lustre or attraction; to become dull.

Translations

Anagrams

• Hartins, rantish