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Glite Dictionary
😳 Awkward feeling 💸 Money trouble 🧺 Too much
embarrassment

embarrassment

19 4.2
A state of not having enough money
  • noun
  • /ɪmˈbærəsmənt/
translation icon : apuro económico
  • If I have to call a tow truck, it will be an embarrassment and a huge waste of time.
  • financial embarrassment
  • source of embarrassment
  • cause embarrassment

Examples

  • Due to unexpected expenses, he found himself in a state of embarrassment when he couldn't pay his bills.

  • The company faced significant embarrassment after its financial reports revealed huge losses.

  • There was no position for me, but that is more an embarrassment than a disgrace.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The Boy Scouts have suffered national embarrassment, funding withdrawals, and school-exclusion orders.

    Academic text (2002)

  • A note explained that his suicide resulted from financial embarrassment, and the widow Frenois struggled to satisfy her husband's creditors.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Her inability to cover the costs of the event led to a public embarrassment among her peers.

Antonyms

wealth
507 1.3

A large amount of money and valuable things that a person or country owns

Compounds

embarrassment of riches
4 7.4

Having more good choices than you can easily choose between

How Financially Strained

bankruptcy
  • Specialized
315 4.1
insolvency
  • Specialized
12 6.8
embarrassment
19 4.2
solvency
  • Specialized
15 6.2
security
289 3.0

Surface Forms

embarrassment singular
embarrassments plural

Morphology

embarrassment = embarrass (opaque) = embarrass + ment

The transformation from 'embarrass' to 'embarrassment' is transparent, but the specific financial meaning is not directly derivable from the verb.

Etymology

Embarrassment comes from an old French word that meant 'to put behind a bar' or 'to block', and you can see that idea in the root bar. So being in embarrassment with money is like being 'blocked' or stuck without enough money.