dishonour - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Old French deshonor, equivalent to dis- +‎ honour.

dishonour (countable and uncountable, plural dishonours) (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa)

  1. Shame or disgrace.
    Synonyms: humiliation, ignominy, unhonour; see also Thesaurus:shame
    You have brought dishonour upon the family.
    • 1645, G. Gillespie, Nihil Respondes, section 11:
      That which were a dishonour to God the Son, were a dishonour to God the holy Ghost.
  2. Lack of honour or integrity.
    Synonyms: indecency, unhonour, unrighteousness; see also Thesaurus:improbity
  3. (law) Failure or refusal of the drawee or intended acceptor of a negotiable instrument, such as a bill of exchange or note, to accept it or, if it is accepted, to pay and retire it.

shame or disgrace

failure of the drawee to pay and retire a negotiable instrument

dishonour (third-person singular simple present dishonours, present participle dishonouring, simple past and past participle dishonoured) (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa)

  1. To bring disgrace upon someone or something; to shame.
    Synonyms: discomfit, humiliate, mortify; see also Thesaurus:abash
    You have dishonoured the family.
    • 1854, Robert Aitken, The teaching of the types, page 99:
      Still, in the very fullest blaze of gospel light, while we see that both Christ and His work are most ungratefully and flagrantly dishonoured, by our persistings in the attempt to do for ourselves what He has told us we cannot do, […]
  2. To refuse to accept something, such as a cheque; to not honor.
    • 1684, Obadiah Walker, A Paraphrase and Annotations Upon All the Epistles of St Paul:
      disworshipping and dishonouring God
  3. To violate or rape.
    Synonyms: defoul, outrage, ravish; see also Thesaurus:rape
    • 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash‎[2]:
      “My men, the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese pirate. His character is known; he scuttles all the ships he boards, dishonours the women, and murders the crew.”

to bring disgrace upon someone or something

  1. ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909), A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎[1], volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 6.64, page 203.