0 If something is described as a shame, it is disappointing or not satisfactory: --
"Douglas had to miss the school concert because he was ill." "Oh, what a shame/that's a shame!"
[ + to infinitive ] Have some more vegetables - it would be a shame to waste them.
[ + that ] It's a (great/real) shame that the event had to be cancelled.
1 an uncomfortable feeling of guilt or of being ashamed because of your own or someone else's bad behaviour: --
humorous You were in town and you didn't come and see us - shame on you!
Shame on you for being so mean.
To my shame, I never wrote and thanked Mary for her present.
It puts me to shame that I still haven't replied to David's letter.
In some societies, if a woman leaves her husband, it brings shame on her and her family.
He thinks there's great shame in being out of work and unable to provide for his family.
You can't go out dressed like that - have you no shame (= don't you feel ashamed about being dressed like that)?
The shame of the scandal was so great that he shot himself a few weeks later.
He said he felt no shame for what he had done.
2 to make someone or something seem not good by comparison: --
3 to make someone feel ashamed, or to make someone or something lose honour and respect: --
4 to be so much better than something else that the other thing seems of a low standard by comparison: --
5 used to express disapproval of something that a public speaker is saying: --
I submit it is shaming that it still does here.
Their poverty is demeaning to them and shaming to us all.
Any incident in which somebody is attacked in public and not helped, shames us all.
One or two firms will be named and shamed.
I have made those remarks publicly several times this week, so has she been shamed into changing the batting order?
To do that in pursuit of savings which, in terms of global expenditure, are puny, shames us.
By using media coverage, they shamed water companies into reducing the number of disconnections.
The fact that 3,500 people died last year from drug overdoses shames us.
