Word Study
embarrassment
CIDE DICTIONARY
embarrassment, n. [F. embarrassement.].
- A state of being embarrassed; perplexity; impediment to freedom of action; entanglement; hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness. [1913 Webster]"The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper." [1913 Webster]"The embarrassments tom commerce growing out of the late regulations." [1913 Webster]
- Difficulty or perplexity arising from the want of money to pay debts. [1913 Webster]
THESAURUS
embarrassment
abasement, abashment, absorption, agitation, awkwardness, baffle, bafflement, bashfulness, befuddlement, bewilderment, bind, bother, botheration, broken fortune, burden, burthen, cargo, chagrin, chaos, charge, cloud, clumsiness, clutch, comedown, complication, confoundment, confusion, constraint, coyness, cross, crunch, cumbrance, daze, deadweight, debasement, deflation, demureness, demurity, descent, difficulties, difficulty, dilemma, disadvantage, discombobulation, discomfiture, discomfort, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertedness, disconcertion, disconcertment, discountenance, disgrace, disorder, disorganization, disorientation, distress, disturbance, dump, embarrassing position, encumbrance, engagement, enigma, enmeshment, entanglement, excess, fine how-do-you-do, fix, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, freight, frenzy, fuddle, fuddlement, genteel poverty, hamper, handicap, hangdog look, hard pinch, hardship, haze, hell to pay, hobble, hot water, how-do-you-do, humbled pride, humiliation, imbroglio, impecuniosity, impecuniousness, impediment, impedimenta, implication, imposition, inclusion, inconvenience, insolvency, involution, involvement, jam, jumble, letdown, light purse, load, lumber, maze, mess, mist, mix, morass, mortification, mousiness, muddle, muddlement, mystery, narrow means, nonplus, onus, oversupply, pack, parlous straits, pass, penalty, perplexity, perturbation, pickle, pinch, plight, poorness, pother, poverty, predicament, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, problem, profusion, pucker, put-down, puzzle, puzzlement, quagmire, quandary, quicksand, relation, riddle, ruffle, scrape, self-abasement, self-abnegation, self-consciousness, self-diminishment, setdown, shame, shamefacedness, shamefastness, shuffle, shyness, skittishness, slender means, slough, spot, squeeze, stagefright, stammering, stew, sticky wicket, strain, strait, straitened circumstances, straits, superabundance, superfluity, surplus, swamp, sweat, swivet, tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, timidity, timidness, timorousness, tizzy, tricky spot, trouble, unassuredness, unease, uneasiness, unholy mess, unprosperousness, unsettlement, upset, vexation, voluntary poverty, vows of poverty, weight, white elephantROGET THESAURUS
embarrassment
Difficulty
N difficulty, hardness, impracticability, tough work, hard work, uphill work, hard task, Herculean task, Augean task, task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift, dilemma, embarrassment, deadlock, perplexity, intricacy, entanglement, complexity, cross fire, awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus, net, meshes, maze, coil, crooked path, involvement, nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point, vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, paradox, hard nut to crack, nut to crack, bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the shoe pinches, nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt, critical situation, crisis, trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble, scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, pretty kettle of fish, pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado, false position, set fast, stand, standstill, deadlock, dead set, fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac, hitch, stumbling block, crab, curmudgeon, difficult, not easy, hard, tough, troublesome, toilsome, irksome, operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable, sooner said than done, more easily said than done, easier said than done, difficult to deal with, hard to deal with, ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby, not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water, awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable, intractable, stubborn, perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged, knotted, knotty, invious, pathless, trackless, labyrinthine, intricate, complicated, impracticable, not feasible, desperate, embarrassing, perplexing, delicate, ticklish, critical, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties, under a difficulty, in a box, in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape, in deep water, in a fine pickle, in extremis, between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis, surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands, at cross purposes, not out of the wood, reduced to straits, hard pressed, sorely pressed, run hard, pinched, put to it, straitened, hard up, hard put to it, hard set, put to one's shifts, puzzled, at a loss, at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill, graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground, stuck fast, set fast, up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall, au bout de son Latin, out of one's depth, thrown out, accomplished with difficulty, hard-fought, hard-earned, with difficulty, with much ado, barely, hardly, uphill, against the stream, against the grain, d rebours, invita Minerva, in the teeth of, at a pinch, upon a pinch, at long odds, against long odds, ay there's the rub, hic labor hoc opus, things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti, ad astra per aspera, acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire.Hindrance
N hindrance, prevention, preclusion, obstruction, stoppage, embolus, embolism, infarct, interruption, interception, interclusion, hindrance, impedition, retardment, retardation, embarrassment, oppilation, coarctation, stricture, restriction, restraint, inhibition, blockade, interference, interposition, obtrusion, discouragement, discountenance, impediment, let, obstacle, obstruction, knot, knag, check, hitch, contretemps, screw loose, grit in the oil, bar, stile, barrier, turnstile, turnpike, gate, portcullis, beaver dam, trocha, barricade, wall, dead wall, sea wall, levee breakwater, groyne, bulkhead, block, buffer, stopper, boom, dam, weir, burrock, drawback, objection, stumbling-block, stumbling-stone, lion in the path, snag, snags and sawyers, encumbrance, incumbrance, clog, skid, shoe, spoke, drag, drag chain, drag weight, stay, stop, preventive, prophylactic, load, burden, fardel, onus, millstone round one's neck, impedimenta, dead weight, lumber, pack, nightmare, Ephialtes, incubus, old man of the sea, remora, difficulty, insuperable, obstacle, estoppel, ill wind, head wind, trammel, tether, hold back, counterpoise, damper, wet blanket, hinderer, marplot, killjoy, party pooper, party crasher, interloper, trail of a red herring, opponent, hindering, obstructive, obstruent, impeditive, impedient, intercipient, prophylactic, impedimentary, in the way of, unfavorable, onerous, burdensome, cumbrous, cumbersome, obtrusive, hindered, windbound, waterlogged, heavy laden, hard pressed, unassisted &c (assist), single-handed, alone, deserted, occurrent nubes.Uncertainty
N uncertainty, incertitude, doubt, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubitation, dubitancy, dubitousness, hesitation, suspense, perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, bewilderment, timidity, vacillation, diaporesis, indetermination, vagueness, haze, fog, obscurity, ambiguity, contingency, dependence, dependency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility, open question, onus probandi, blind bargain, pig in a poke, leap in the dark, something or other, needle in a haystack, needle in a bottle of hay, roving commission, precariousness, fallibility, uncertain, casual, random, changeable, doubtful, dubious, indecisive, unsettled, undecided, undetermined, in suspense, open to discussion, controvertible, in question, vague, indeterminate, indefinite, ambiguous, equivocal, undefined, undefinable, confused, mystic, oracular, dazed, perplexing, enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical, experimental, unpredictable, unforeseeable (unknowable), fallible, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable, unreliable, untrustworthy, contingent, contingent on, dependent on, subject to, dependent on circumstances, occasional, provisional, unauthentic, unauthenticated, unauthoritative, unascertained, unconfirmed, undemonstrated, untold, uncounted, in a state of uncertainty, in a cloud, in a maze, bushed, off the track, ignorant, afraid to say, out of one's reckoning, astray, adrift, at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, puzzled, lost, abroad, d_esorient_e, distracted, distraught, pendente lite, sub spe rati, Heaven knows, who can tell? who shall decide when doctors disagr.For further exploring for "embarrassment" in Webster Dictionary Online