English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From disgrace +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): [dɪsˈɡɹeɪsfəɫ], [dɪzˈɡɹeɪsfəɫ]
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

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disgraceful (comparative disgracefuller or more disgraceful, superlative disgracefullest or disgracefullest)

  1. Bringing or warranting disgrace; shameful.
    • 1668, Slingsby Bethel, The world's mistake in Oliver Cromwell, page 9:
      Fourthly, in the disgracefullest defeat at Hiftaniola that ever this Kingdom suffered in any age or time.
    • 1883, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle, James Anthony Froude, Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle - Volume 1, page 292:
      Meanwhile I have plenty to employ me, in siding drawers and locked places, which I left in the disgracefullest confusion ;
    • 1883, Robert Eldridge Aris Willmott, editor, The poetical works of Thomas Gray, Thomas Parnell, William Collins, Matthew Green, & Thomas Warton.:
      From Zoilus to Dennis, no disgracefuller outrage on taste had been committed.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.
  2. Giving offense to moral sensibilities and injurious to reputation.
    • 1854, Mary Hayden Green Pike, Ida May: A Story of Things Actual and Possible, page 76:
      I dono' where she 's raised, but she do go on de most disgracefullest since she been here.
    • 1953, Arnold Gingrich, The Esquire Treasury:
      To a good golfer a shank is disgracefuller than being dead drunk or in jail.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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