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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Embarrass


EMBAR'RASS, verb transitive

1. To perplex; to render intricate; to entangle. We say, public affairs are embarrassed; the state of our accounts is embarrassed; want of order tends to embarrass business.

2. To perplex, as the mind or intellectual faculties; to confuse. Our ideas are sometimes embarrassed.

3. To perplex, as with debts, or demands, beyond the means of payment; applied to a person or his affairs. In mercantile language, a man or his business is embarrassed, when he cannot meet his pecuniary engagements.

4. To perplex; to confuse; to disconcert; to abash. An abrupt address may embarrass a young lady. A young man may be too much embarrassed to utter a word.