Shamefast

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈʃeɪmfɑːst/

Origin

From Middle English shamefast, schamefast, schamfast, sceomefest, from Old English sceamfæst, scamfæst ("modest, shy, bashful"), corresponding to shame + fast.

Full definition of shamefast

Adjective

1. (archaic) Bashful, modest; shy.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:With chaunge of cheare the seeming simple maid
  Let fall her eyen, as shamefast to the earth ....
• 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 141:But the women are alwayes covered about their middles with a skin, and very shamefast to be seene bare.

Derived terms

• shamefastly
• shamefastness