How to Use shameful in a Sentence

shameful

adjective
  • There is no excuse for such shameful behavior.
  • No one has made trickin’ sound so cool, yet sound so shameful.
    — Christopher Claxton, Billboard, 1 Oct. 2024
  • This is shameful that the public can not mourn the deaths of these poor souls.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 9 Feb. 2026
  • There is nothing wrong or shameful about a boy who wants to do ballet.
    — Leah Rocketto, Woman's Day, 23 Aug. 2019
  • But now death had become a shameful thing, to be banished from sight.
    — Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2023
  • Why would that be a shameful identity to have?
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 15 Mar. 2026
  • The calves of a woman’s legs were shameful things and not to be exposed.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Dec. 2021
  • Something shameful felt very near, almost on top of him.
    — Mary Gaitskill, New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2026
  • That was a shameful period in his life.
    — CBS News, 7 June 2026
  • This shameful agreement must not be allowed to stand.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 22 May 2026
  • For too long it’s felt like something shameful to talk about, but that is changing.
    — Shannon Carlin, refinery29.com, 24 June 2020
  • There was nothing awkward or shameful about it.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Your pastor’s comments alone are – shameful, to say the least.
    — Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 4 Oct. 2020
  • Your pastor’s comments alone are — shameful, to say the least.
    — Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 4 Oct. 2020
  • There’s only one school in the nation that’s shameful enough to have not paid their head coach.
    — Tim Sullivan, The Courier-Journal, 21 Oct. 2017
  • Risk wasn’t shameful and failure wasn’t final here.
    — Anthony Scaramucci, Fortune, 28 June 2026
  • Letting a goal go by the wayside can feel shameful or like giving up.
    — Alexa Mikhail, Fortune, 29 Sep. 2022
  • This is the beginning of the end of this shameful money grab.
    — Jay Stahl, USA TODAY, 14 Dec. 2024
  • To kill it and pretend that that was some kind of accident, that is shameful.
    — Bruce Sterling, WIRED, 13 Apr. 2013
  • Deep flaws in his character brought that career to a sad, shameful end.
    — Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 24 Aug. 2021
  • This is shameful, and where are those of the left condemning such a display of hate?
    — baltimoresun.com, 1 June 2017
  • For those choosing divorce, it’s no longer seen as shameful, Tan says.
    — Chris Lau, CNN, 19 Sep. 2024
  • That these moral monsters have been welcomed to our shores with open arms is appalling and shameful.
    — Newsweek, 28 Feb. 2025
  • These are shameful questions to hear, but ones the state’s leaders have failed to ask themselves.
    — South Florida Sun Sentinel, Sun Sentinel, 20 May 2026
  • That poor driver had to listen to me sniffle in shameful despair all the way back to the city.
    — Paige Williams, New Yorker, 22 June 2026
  • Opening the Arctic to drilling as part of this tax plan is simply shameful.
    — Susmita Baral, Teen Vogue, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Not just the hacking of OPM, but that is — that is just shameful.
    — New York Times, 15 Jan. 2016
  • This will be a shameful insult to everyone.
    — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 17 Aug. 2025
  • Democrats started yelling out that this was shameful and a harassment of the witness.
    — Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 12 July 2018
  • This is shameful and disgusting.
    — Andrew Stanton, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shameful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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