shamefast

English

Etymology

From Middle English shamefast, schamefast, schamfast, sceomefest, from Old English sċeamfæst, scamfæst (modest, shy, bashful), corresponding to shame + fast.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈʃeɪmfɑːst/

Adjective

shamefast (comparative more shamefast, superlative most shamefast)

  1. (archaic) Bashful, modest; shy.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:
      With chaunge of cheare the seeming simple maid / Let fall her eyen, as shamefast to the earth [...].
    • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 141:
      But the women are alwayes covered about their middles with a skin, and very shamefast to be seene bare.

Derived terms

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