Disgrace Meaning
/dɪsˈɡɹeɪs/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe condition of being out of favor; loss of favor, regard, or respect.
nounThe state of being dishonored, or covered with shame.
Sentence Examples
Your wrongdoing is a disgrace to our school.
What you did brought disgrace on the whole class.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Cheating on the test brought ____ to the entire school.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Your wrongdoing is a ____ to our school.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French disgracier.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I heare / Macduffe liues in diſgrace. Sir, can you tell / Where he beſtowes himſelfe?"
— c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], page 143:
"Practice and whipping were alike unavailing, and Epps, satisfied of it at last, swore I was a disgrace—that I was not fit to associate with a cotton-picking "nigger"—that I could not pick enough in a day to pay the trouble of weighing it, and that I should go into the cotton field no more."
— 1853, Solomon Northup, chapter XIII, in [David Wilson], editor, Twelve Years a Slave. […], London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, →OCLC, page 179:
""You are," said Uncle Tinfish, when he recovered the power of speech, "a disgrace, sir, A DIS-GRACE!" The curate merely confirmed Uncle Tinfish's power of divination by a groan."
— 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 162:
"As for the pulling of them [ambitious men] downe, if the Affaires require it, and that it may not be done with ſafety ſuddainly, the onely Way is, the Enterchange, continually of Fauours, and Diſgraces, whereby they may not know, what to expect; And be, as it were, in a Wood."
— 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Ambition. XXXVI.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 221:
"[…] some families renounced the use of a certain praenomen which had been disgraced by one of their name […]"
— 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xv:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Cheating on the test brought ____ to the entire school.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Your wrongdoing is a ____ to our school.