scarlet letter
4
9.4
- noun
- /ˈskɑrlɪt ˈlɛtər/
- Literature
:
letra escarlata
- In her community, the accusation was like a scarlet letter, marking her as untrustworthy.
- wear the scarlet letter
And that's a tough scarlet letter, right?
- And that's a tough scarlet letter, right?
Examples
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"Once they're on the list, they have a scarlet letter," he said.
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This scarlet letter marks you as a traitor.
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And, and I kind of carried that, that scarlet letter for the entire four years I was at the Air Force Academy.
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Do I bear the scarlet letter?
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While I agree no one should treat her like she has a scarlet letter,
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I view it as a scarlet letter.
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Charged as an adult, he has to wear a scarlet letter for the rest of his life.
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I walked into church every week wearing a scarlet letter.
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If you wear your scarlet letter and own it, as this post seems to declare, you can overcome this.
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Friends ran away from him, looking at him as if he had a scarlet letter branded with a hot iron on his forehead.
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Synonyms
34
6.8
A mark on someone's reputation that makes others respect them less
7
5.8
A thing that makes people think less of someone
5
8.8
A public mark that shows a person is shamed for a bad action
1
9.9
A sign that makes someone look guilty or an outcast
A single event that harms a person or group's good reputation
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'scarlet' (vivid red) and 'letter' (a written character) lets a B1 learner infer a literal 'red letter', but it does not reliably yield the idiomatic sense of a symbol of public shame or guilt. The expression is a culturally specific reference (Hawthorne's novel) whose social-judgment meaning requires background knowledge, so the relation is partial rather than fully transparent.
Etymology
Scarlet letter comes from a famous book where a woman was forced to wear a bright red letter A on her clothes to show she had a relationship outside marriage. Because that public mark made her feel shame and showed her guilt, today scarlet letter means a public sign of 'shame' or 'guilt'.